THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, June 26, 1996 TAG: 9606260031
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: LAWRENCE MADDRY
LENGTH: 110 lines
BACK IN 1951 Jack Parrott, a recent graduate of Virginia Military Institute, was waiting to ship out to the war in Korea.
The young officer, staying at a bachelor officers' quarters in San Francisco, walked down the hall to take a shower. He removed his VMI ring and placed it on a sink.
When he returned to the sink after his shower the ring was gone. He looked everywhere for it.
No luck. Someone had stolen it.
``My immediate reaction was: How could I be so dumb?'' he said. ``I was angry, but only at myself for not taking better care of it.''
He didn't see the ring again - until last Tuesday when he received it in the mail.
The ring - missing for about 45 years - was returned to Parrott's home in Roanoke. But he still does not know who took it.
Last week a box arrived in Lexington, Va., merely addressed to VMI.
Inside was the ring with Parrott's name inscribed inside the band. VMI Quartermaster Capt. Jerry Ruley, who handled the package, said the postmark on the package was from Carmel, Ind., a suburb of Indianapolis. There was no letter or note. Just the ring in a box.
Capt. Ruley checked the VMI alumni directory, phoned Parrott and mailed him the ring.
A couple of months after losing his ring, Parrott had ordered another one.
``But it wasn't the same,'' he said.
VMI rings are presented to cadets during their junior year during an annual ring dance. One by one the cadets step forward beneath a large arch to receive the ring from a girlfriend who slips it on the cadet's finger. A smooch accompanies the ring ritual.
Parrott has no idea who sent the ring to VMI last week.
``I have no reason to think it's the person who took it,'' he said. ``It could have been won in a poker game or whatever.''
Parrott, a Roanoke city councilman, said a newspaper in Indianapolis recently printed a story about the return of his VMI ring. He said a friend who had served with him in Korea read that story and got in touch after not having been seen or heard from since the 1950s.
Parrot said he isn't wearing the original ring because of swollen knuckles caused by arthritis. ``I'm sending it off to the manufacturer to have it re-sized,'' he said.
VMI public relations director Mike Stricker says a ring returned after 45 years is probably a record for the school.
But rings do make their way back to VMI men after being lost for many years. In April an unidentified person gave a VMI ring to a Richmond radio station.
He told station staffers he had found it in a rest area on a West Virginia interstate highway. The station mentioned the ring on the air, giving the name of the owner inscribed inside: John Thomas.
Thomas was a member of the class of '72. A class agent in Richmond heard the broadcast and notified Thomas in Tecumseh, Mich. Thomas told the caller that he had left the ring at the rest area in West Virginia more than 20 years earlier. The ring has been returned to him.
BACK IN 1951 Jack Parrott, a recent graduate of Virginia Military Institute, was waiting to ship out to the war in Korea.
The young officer, staying at a bachelor officers' quarters in San Francisco, walked down the hall to take a shower. He removed his VMI ring and placed it on a sink.
When he returned to the sink after his shower the ring was gone. He looked everywhere for it.
No luck. Someone had stolen it.
``My immediate reaction was: How could I be so dumb?'' he said. ``I was angry, but only at myself for not taking better care of it.''
He didn't see the ring again - until last Tuesday when he received it in the mail.
The ring - missing for about 45 years - was returned to Parrott's home in Roanoke. But he still does not know who took it.
Last week a box arrived in Lexington, Va., merely addressed to VMI.
Inside was the ring with Parrott's name inscribed inside the band. VMI Quartermaster Capt. Jerry Ruley, who handled the package, said the postmark on the package was from Carmel, Ind., a suburb of Indianapolis. There was no letter or note. Just the ring in a box.
Capt. Ruley checked the VMI alumni directory, phoned Parrott and mailed him the ring.
A couple of months after losing his ring, Parrott had ordered another one.
``But it wasn't the same,'' he said.
VMI rings are presented to cadets during their junior year during an annual ring dance. One by one the cadets step forward beneath a large arch to receive the ring from a sweetheart or girlfriend who slips it on the cadet's finger. A smooch from the female accompanies the ring ritual.
Parrott has no idea who sent the ring to VMI last week. ``I have no reason to think it's the person who took it,'' he said. ``It could have been won in a poker game or whatever.''
Parrott, a Roanoke city councilman, said a newspaper in Indianapolis recently printed a story about the return of his VMI ring. He said a friend who had served with him in Korea read that story and got in touch after not having been seen or heard from since the 1950s.
Parrot said he isn't wearing the original ring because of swollen knuckles caused by arthritis. ``I'm sending it off to the manufacturer to have it re-sized,'' he said.
VMI public relations director Mike Stricker says a ring returned after 45 years is probably a record for the school.
But rings do make their way back to VMI men after being lost for many years. In April an unidentified person gave a VMI ring to a Richmond radio station.
He told station staffers he had found it in a rest area on a West Virginia interstate highway. The station mentioned the ring on the air, giving the name of the owner inscribed inside: John Thomas.
Thomas was a member of the class of '72. A class agent in Richmond heard the broadcast and notified Thomas in Tecumseh, Mich. Thomas told the caller that he had left the ring at the rest area in West Virginia more than 20 years earlier. The ring has been returned to him. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
ROGER HART/Associated Press
Jack Parrott doesn't know who took - or returned - his ring. by CNB