A phone call from a Florida woman to Union’s Office of Alumni Relations in mid-September set off a chain of events that recently reunited Al Miller '67 with his class ring 15 years after it was stolen.
The Florida woman told Patti Solosky, of Alumni Relations, that she had recently rediscovered a Union ring that her children found years before. The Class of 1967 ring bore the initials, “A.K.M.,” according to the caller, named Joyce.
Solosky recorded the woman’s phone number, discovered that Miller was the only ’67 graduate with the matching initials and sent him an e-mail. In the message, Solosky recounted the phone conversation and contact information and asked Miller if the ring “would perhaps be yours?”
The answer was yes. In fact, the well-loved ring had been stolen from Miller’s house during a break-in 15 years before.
“I called Joyce and it turns out she lives in Punta Gorda, Fla., about an hour north of my home in Naples. She said that her kids had apparently found the ring on the beach up in that area but she was not sure how many years ago,” Miller recalled in an e-mail.
“I have thought about the ring at least once a month ever since it was stolen. I have no idea how the ring got up to Punta Gorda and I didn't press Joyce on the details, I was just extremely happy to have it back,” Miller wrote.
Miller, a retired high school physics teacher and member of the Sigma Phi fraternity, said the ring had no major scratches or chips and still had the garnet stone. He wondered if the ring’s re-emergence was somehow fated.
“I got the message from Patti just as I had finished the beginning section of ‘Team of Rivals,’ which included a discussion of William H. Seward, Class of 1830, and how he had journeyed up the Hudson River in a steamboat to attend ‘New York’s prestigious Union College,’” Miller wrote.