Class ring, lost for decades, ends up at alumni office--then Spain

When Jay McClymont from the Office of Alumni Relations received a lost Messiah class ring in the mail, he took it upon himself to track down its owner. The ring had arrived from Rochester, Minnesota, from a woman who found it while cleaning out a movie theater’s lost and found box that her uncle had taken home. 

Set with a blue stone, the ring was engraved with the date ’87, the letters B.S. (for Bachelor of Science) and the initials K.A.H. With these clues, McClymont attempted to track down its owner. So, he did a little sleuthing. He consulted the 1987 yearbook and found five seniors with the initials K.H.—three men and two women. Since it was a woman’s ring, he had narrowed it down to two alumni.

“One was a Karen, and then the other one was Kyle — Kyle Hostetler. And I looked them both up in our database. Only Kyle Hostetler had ‘A’ as her middle initial, graduated in ’87 and had a Bachelor of Science in Nursing,” said McClymont

Confident that Kyle Hostetler—who was now married and went by Kyle Eid--was the owner of the ring, McClymont sent her an email. Soon, she replied that, yes, she was missing a ring that fit that description.

Having found the identity of the ring’s owner, the next task would be to return the ring to her. This would be easier said than done, as Eid and her husband live in Spain. Fortunately, many possible resolutions existed:

1. Eid’s daughter was graduating from Messiah, so the family would be in Grantham for Undergraduate Commencement May 11. The ring could be easily picked up on campus.
2. McClymont’s coworker Abby Book was traveling to Spain in February to visit her daughter who was studying abroad. Once she was in Spain, Book could just mail the ring to Eid.
3. The city of Malaga—where Eid lives—just so happened to be on Book’s itinerary. The ring could be delivered in person.

“When I found out that Kyle lives in Malaga and that is the same city that Abby planned to visit while seeing her daughter Anna, I thought, that would be a perfect way to get the ring back to Kyle and make for a fun story,” said McClymont.

So, they picked Option 3 and—to recap—the ring traveled from Rochester, Minnesota, to Grantham, Pennsylvania, to Malaga, Spain. It’s not so unusual when you think about so many of Messiah’s alumni traveling the globe to make a difference.

“Here’s an alum who is a nursing major working and living in Spain. When Messiah alumni leave here, they go all over the world. The fact that she’ll be back in May for her daughter’s graduation points to legacy,” said McClymont.

The effort involved in returning one class ring shows the community and the caring nature of Messiah’s alumni—and the alumni office.

— Samantha Neal ’24 and Anna Seip