SAN ANTONIO — When I was a senior in high school, I was so proud the day I received my class ring. It was white gold with a sapphire center and had my name engraved on the inside. Sometime during the summer, after I graduated I lost it.
I have always hoped one day someone would contact me and say they had found it. It's been almost 50 years...I doubt now it will ever happen. But, I have had the great privilege of doing exactly that for someone else.
Ed Lee was a young sergeant in the Air Force, in 1960-61 stationed at Giebelstadt Army Airfield, in Germany when one day he noticed a ring on the ground. It was a University of Pennsylvania class ring from 1959. Inside the ring were the initials R.E.S.
Lee says 'I asked around and no one knew anybody who had lost a class ring." Lee kept asking, but eventually put the ring away and didn't give it any more thought. Eventually Lee retired from the Air Force and became the Fire Chief at Brooks Air Force Base in San Antonio.
Every once in a while Lee would come across the ring and try to find the owner. He says he reached out to UPENN several times over the years "But every time I did, whoever I spoke with would tell me it's not my department or whatever" Lee says.
Lee took up the hobby of making his own jewelry. He would go around to area pawn shops and buy mens gold rings, then melt them down and make something else out of the gold. Lee says "You don't know how many times I thought about melting down this ring, but something just wouldn't let me do it."
Now 92 years old, Lee set out one more time to find the owner. He contacted me through our KENS-5 website and told me the story. Having lost my ring, I told Lee I would find the owner. It took about 9-10 days and I don't know how many phone conversations with different people in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and other states.
After numerous calls to UPENN, the Executive Director of the alumni association confirmed the owner of the ring had died. After sending me his obituary, I tracked down the only child Of Kay and Robert Edwards Sauvageot.
Scott Sauvageot was shocked when he heard the message I left for him. He was equally in awe the day my photographer Axel Devino and I flew to Baltimore, Maryland, then drove to Laurel to hand deliver him the ring.
Ed Lee told me "I feel as though I have been on a mission with this ring. If you can get it back to it's rightful owner, I will feel I have accomplished my mission." I felt such a sense of excitement and pride in handing over the ring to Scott. So Mr. Lee...mission accomplished!