UMUC Ring Comes Home After 18-Year "Vacation" in Sicily

By Alita Byrd
Special to FYI Online

Don Fathke lost his UMUC class ring when it slipped out of the pocket of his flight suit when he was on a U.S. naval deployment in Sicily, Italy, in 1984. Then, almost 20 years later, the phone rang. It was Susan Douglass, of UMUC's Student Affairs Office, calling with some remarkable news.

Don Fathke

"You cannot imagine the feeling of joy I had, hearing that someone had found my ring and was trying to get in touch with me about it," said Fathke, who is now a civilian employee with the Naval Air Systems Command. "To say I was extremely happy doesn't quite describe it. I never imagined I would see the ring again. Since it was lost in a foreign country, even if someone did find it, they probably would not know what type of ring it was or that it might hold a special meaning for someone."

Fathke must have had an extra helping of good luck, because it was Cristina Reyes who found the ring. Reyes is Sicilian, but has been living in California for almost five years, working as the business development manager for an international technology company. She was vacationing in Sicily, taking her niece Frederica to the beach near Catania, when she saw something sparkling in the sand by the sidewalk. She bent down to see what it was. When she brushed away the loose sand, she realized it was a ring. It was set with a clear stone and engraved with the year 1983 and the name Don D. Fathke inside. Closer examination revealed that it was from UMUC.

"Being in the U.S. for the past few years I had seen rings like that on people who go to university," Reyes said. "Anyone could have found it, but someone from Sicily wouldn't have known how to deal with the situation."

Reyes proved quite resourceful in dealing with the situation. She took the ring back to California with her to find its owner. Once, on Oprah, she had watched a show about someone who had found a ring and the effort that went into finding the owner.

"They did a huge thing on the show—a whole investigation," Reyes said. "I thought it would be a challenge for me to see whether I could do the same thing all by myself. And it wasn't so hard. It only took me a few phone calls."

Reyes found UMUC's telephone number on the Internet. She called the office for lost and found, and they referred her to Student Affairs. Reyes left a message on voicemail, and it wasn't long before she got a call back from Susan Douglass, academic program specialist.

That was when Douglass did a bit of sleuthing herself. She found Fathke's name in the alumni files but couldn't reach him at any of the listed numbers. She turned to the Internet. When she found a Donald D. Fathke in Lexington Park, Maryland, she called the number and left a message about the found ring.

It didn't take Fathke long to call Douglass back. He had searched high and low for the ring when he noticed it was missing in 1984.

"I was devastated when I could not find it," Fathke said. His wife had given it to him as a graduation gift just a short time before, when Fathke received his business degree from UMUC. "She said if anyone deserved a ring I did, since it took 20 years of schooling to achieve it," Fathke said.

The long missing ring, still shiny and like new.

After the ring was lost, Fathke and his wife weren't able to forget about it. She often looked through their stored items, thinking that maybe it had been put away somewhere in the series of moves the couple had made.

"I kept telling her I knew it had been lost on deployment," Fathke said.

When Fathke called Douglass back, she gave him Reyes' number in California. Fathke called her right away.

"He just couldn't believe it," Reyes said. "I had to describe the ring to convince him it was true."

Reyes sent the ring to Fathke by priority mail that same day. It was in remarkably good shape—still shiny and new-looking. Neither Fathke nor Reyes can guess where the ring might have been all those years. "It is in excellent condition," Fathke said. "It fits me to a tee, just like it did 20 years ago."

Fathke is still surprised—not only that the long-lost ring was found, but that someone would go to the trouble to find him and return it. He is extremely grateful for Reyes' kindness.

Reyes said she just hopes that if she loses something someday, someone will do the same thing for her. "That's why I did it," she said.