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NEED TO KNOW
- College of Georgia alum Fred Baker III misplaced his class ring for the primary time throughout a visit to Spain in 1970
- Final summer season, a person discovered the ring in his grandparents’ home and reached out to the College of Georgia’s Workplace of Alumni Relations, who had been capable of hunt Baker down
- “Neither of them needed to take the time to analysis and discover me, however they did, and that’s fairly admirable,” the veteran tells PEOPLE
A College of Georgia alum lastly acquired his class ring again after over 50 years, solely to misplace it but once more.
Fred Baker III’s College of Georgia class ring started its worldwide journey again to him in June 2024, when Jack Swift, then an intern for the College of Georgia’s Workplace of Alumni Relations, obtained an e mail from William Martinez, who lived in a city close to Valencia, Spain.
Within the message, Swift defined that he’d discovered a hoop in his grandparents’ home and needed to study extra about its historical past.
“At first, I used to be shocked that somebody would go to the hassle of emailing the college from one other nation, one other continent,” Swift stated throughout an interview with the University of Georgia Alumni Association. “I assumed that was attention-grabbing and I needed to look into it and study extra. I made a decision to commit a while, commit and see what might come from it.”
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The ring bore Baker’s title, his commencement yr of 1967, and the Greek letters of his fraternity. Swift pored by way of an previous yearbook and later known as up the alum.
“My daughter was with me and we had been sitting there listening to the voicemail and simply could not imagine what he was saying,” Baker, 81, tells PEOPLE. “That someone had really discovered the ring and needed to see about returning it in any case that point.”
Fred Baker
After graduating from UGA, Baker served within the navy and traveled internationally after being stationed in Germany. And in 1970, someday throughout a visit to Spain, he misplaced the ring.
“I owe so much to Jack and Mr. Martinez for doing this,” Baker informed UGA. “Neither of them needed to take the time to analysis and discover me, however they did, and that’s fairly admirable.”
Swift helped return the ring to Baker simply earlier than his internship wrapped.
“I knew it was one thing that was vital to Mr. Fred, in order that made it vital to me,” Swift informed the College of Georgia.
The 81-year-old stated he has checked clothes pockets, but when he cannot discover it quickly, he’ll seemingly order a alternative.