It took 56 years and a cruise vacation to Scotland, but Robert Bruce Walker has his Nacogdoches High School Class of 1966 ring.
Walker, who lives in Beaumont with his wife Kathryn, got a call last fall from a classmate. A class ring from Nacogdoches had been found by a treasure hunter in Scotland, of all places, and the man had done enough research to make contact with the NHS Alumni Association via email.
That got Kristen Jasper involved. (In September 2023, Jasper was still director of the association – she’s since retired and Nancy White has taken over.) The email from Scotland:
“Hey folks, sorry for whoever this inconveniences.
“I live in Fife Scotland and I came across a gold ring metal detecting the beach at the path at Kirkcaldy on between the tides. The ring looks like one of your old ones from 1966. The trail seems to run cold after I found it and searched most avenues but as I know this ring is from here you could look back in the yearbooks and find out who it is possibly? If I have a name I may be able to reunite it with its owner. I will enclose pictures. The initials are RBW from class of 1966. Thanks in advance for even looking, folks! I know the owner of the ring might not be young or even alive. In Scotland he would be lucky!
“Can you tell me anything about it?
Trying to think of someone from the Class of 1966 that would fit the initials “RBW,” Jasper contacted another grad from that year, Wendy Floyd, saying it was likely Robert Bruce Walker. Floyd reached out to Walker using social media and put him in contact with Jasper, who then shared the email address from Scotland.
That initiated a nearly one-year long attempt to reunite Walker with his ring. Turns out, Walker and his wife would be in Scotland in September of this year on a cruise that also had ports of call in Iceland and Ireland. Last month, Walker emailed Jasper with the rest of the story:
“I contacted Andrew and told him that I was going to be in Glasgow on September 21st and would be there only from 10am to 7pm and maybe he could mail it to me there. Glasgow is only about 1hr 30 minutes from Fife, where Andrew lives. He agreed, in principle.
“I told the Atlas Cruise Director about this amazing story and the ship's staff got involved and helped me make arrangements to have the ring shipped to the Glasgow Port Agent and he would deliver the package directly to the ship.
Not only did I receive the package with the ring, but the Cruise Director also planned a reception for me to tell my "ring story" and open the package. Approximately 70 passengers (out of 130) attended and celebrated as I saw my NHS Senior Ring for the first time in 56 years!”
Turns out, way back in 1968, Walker loaned his class ring to a girl who was still in high school in Dallas, all under the pretense of she wanted to make her boyfriend jealous. She then “loaned” it to another friend for the same purpose.
From there, it gets a bit hazy. Did someone go to Scotland? Or, did the ring somehow make its way into the Gulf of Mexico, and riding the ocean currents before washing ashore along the Scottish coast (on the eastern coast, to be precise)?
Barring a big surprise, that part of the riddle will go unsolved. But the ring is back in Walker’s hand, or more accurately, on his wife Kathryn’s hand, according to his Facebook post:
“It was found near the shores of Fife Scotland in 2023 by a metal detectorist. He traced the ring back to me. It happens that we were planning a trip to Scotland, so I arranged to hopefully get it while on a cruise. The cruise ship hosted a special reception Saturday night with approximately 70 passengers attending. This is where I opened the package and saw the ring after missing it for 56 years! Kathryn is wearing it now!”