Long-Lost Class Ring Returned
Published: May 13, 2008
It’s likely been years since Floyd Darling of Laceyville has thought much about the Elk Lake class ring he used to wear indicating that he was a member of the Class of 1982.
The ring turned up missing when Floyd was serving with the Marine Corps at Camp Pendleton, California, the October after his graduation.
But due to an odd turn of events, the ring was returned to Floyd Tuesday afternoon and, as you might imagine, Floyd, who’s a truck driver for Laceyville’s R.G. Brown Refuse Company, couldn’t quite believe what he saw.
It was Springville business owner Lisa Burger who initiated a chain of events that led to the discovery of Floyd’s ring after she lost her own Elk Lake ring and began a search on the internet at a web site called classringfinder.com. Lisa owns a company called Endless Mountains Laser, which specializes in engraving marble, glass, wood and other materials.
“When I typed in Elk Lake, hoping my ring would show up, I saw that just one ring from Elk Lake was listed, but it was for the Class of 1982,” Lisa said, adding that was not the year of her graduation.
Curious about who the 1982 ring might belong to, Lisa requested more information about it and was informed that it belonged to a member of the Class of 1982 with the initials FD. With that information, she looked through a copy of Elk Lake’s 1982 yearbook and quickly made the connection between FD and Floyd Darling, who, as it turns out, happens to be her uncle’s cousin.
It was San Diego resident Bob Harris who was searching Mission Beach with a metal detector and uncovered Darling’s ring.
Classringfinder.com states that it has a listing of 7,899 lost class rings and has been responsible for returning 1,770.
After being notified by Lisa Burger that she’d found the owner of the ring, Harris contacted Laceyville Postmaster Bill Clark for Darling’s address so the ring could be mailed to him. Clark told Harris that postal regulations prohibited him from giving out addresses, but offered to give the ring personally to Darling and that’s how the surprise gathering at the post office took shape. Clark told Darling nothing about his ring being found, but did clue in his boss, David Brown. He simply phoned Darling to say that he needed to be at the post office Tuesday at 3 p.m. without saying why.
Darling walked into the post office Tuesday looking somewhat puzzled and peered briefly at the group gathered there, which included Lisa Burger, her husband, Rick, Bill Clark and this reporter. He seemed to sense something was up but didn’t know what to expect next.
“She has something that belongs to you,” Clark said. Burger held up Darling’s ring.
“Where did that come from,” Darling asked with a big smile slowly forming on his face. “I wrote that off years ago.”
Darling went on to explain that he didn’t remember just when he discovered that he’d lost his ring, and that he did spend a lot of time at San Diego beaches during breaks from his training as an electronics technician for Marine Corps helicopters. He served in the Marine Corps for six years and never thought much about his lost class ring, he said.
A note from Bob Harris that accompanied the ring stated: “I found your ring years ago on a beach in San Diego, California. I’m pretty sure it was Mission Beach. I tried to locate you back then, but really didn’t put enough effort into it—I apologize. I put your ring on the classringfinder.com web site, hoping you or someone you know would see it. Lisa Burger contacted me and got the ball rolling and now you have it.”
Clark said he was happy to play a role in getting the ring back to Darling. “It’s nice to see something good in life happen,” Clark said.
Darling thanked Burger and Clark for their role in getting his long-lost ring returned, smiled and then told Clark: “Well, as long as I’m here, would you mind handing me my mail?”
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