STEVENSVILLE, Mich. (WOOD) — A class ring lost roughly three decades ago will soon be back on the finger of a Berrien County man.
“I just forgot about if over the years,” said Michael Wolf.
Darrell Stoughton of Allegan County told 24 Hour News 8 earlier this week that he found the ring among some of his late grandmother’s possessions, and decided to try to find the owner.
Stoughton’s grandparents once owned a small campground and party store near Mendon, where the Gull Lake High School ring surfaced years ago.
Engravings on the blue sapphire ring indicated it belonged to a 1982 Gull Lake High School graduate who was on the golf team, and include the initials MRW inside the band.
So Stoughton reached out to Gull Lake High School, where officials told Stoughton the initials and graduation date matched up to Michael Robert Wolf.
That’s when someone at Gull Lake picked up the detective work.
According to Wolf, someone at the school tracked Wolf to the Stevensville area. They called the Lincoln Township office, where a clerk was able to cross-reference the name with burn permits issued to township residents. The township employee called Wolf yesterday to give him the good news.
“I was kind of shocked at the whole thing,” said Wolf.
Wolf said he did have friends in the Mendon area, but he can’t remember how he lost the ring or when.
Wolf plans to meet Stoughton this weekend to get the ring back.
I’m looking forward to it,” he said. “I can’t believe it.”