Lost & Found

When Patrick J. Smith (’83) lost his Georgia Southern College class ring 30 years ago on a beach in Florida, he never thought he would see it again. But an odd turn of events proved him wrong and landed the ring back in his possession this year.

It all began when Randi Sykora-McCurdy, administrative assistant in the Jack N. Averitt College of Graduate Studies, received a letter from Florida resident Sylvia Sanchez claiming to have found a class ring with the Georgia Southern logo and the name “Patrick J. Smith” inscribed on it.

“We usually don’t get requests like that, but I called the registrar’s office to see if I could find any information,” she said. “Oddly enough, there was only one ‘Patrick J. Smith’ who had graduated from here and it ended up being him.”

Sykora-McCurdy called Smith and gave him the information for the woman who’d found the ring. Smith, a supervisory special agent with Homeland Security Investigations, initially envisioned Sanchez to be wearing a headset and carrying a metal detector and a shovel looking for objects, but he soon discovered that wasn’t the case at all.

“When I spoke to Sylvia, she told me she was running one day on the beach near Palm Coast, Fla. She stopped, looked down and saw a gold ring lying on the sand next to a rock. Sylvia told me the ring was slightly scratched, but the school emblem and the engraving on the inside were still legible.”

Smith said Sanchez didn’t want a reward, but simply wanted to get the ring back to its rightful owner. Smith is grateful to Sykora-McCurdy, who was happy to have played a small role in the reunion. “It makes me feel very good to know that I could help in some way. This was such a unique story, and I wanted to see how it would all pan out,” Sykora-McCurdy said.

Even more amazing? The ring still fits. Smith said he wears it regularly and was surprised at its condition after all these years.“To lay in the sand, surf, salt and sea for that length of time and still be recognizable is unbelievable,” he said. “Doing the right thing and reuniting me with my ring, I just think that’s pretty darn cool.” – Crissie Elrick