Lost On a Beach in 1972, N.J. Man’s Class Ring Washes Up 51 Years Later

Jim Keelen had long given up on ever seeing his class ring from Watchung Hills High School in New Jersey after he lost on a beach soon after graduation in 1972. 

But 51 years later it suddenly turned up — just miles from where the now 68 year old Keelan had lost it.

“I can't believe it,” he told The Messenger.

Anthony DiMaria-Sadorski, 22, was taking sunset photos by a creek near his home in Point Pleasant Boro — about 70 miles east of Philadelphia — two months ago, when he saw an odd glint of light. 

“The sun caught the rock in the ring,” said DiMaria-Sadorski. 

The recent college graduate put the ring on his desk and forgot about it until he spotted it while cleaning his room in early June.

DiMaria-Sadorski noticed there were initials engraved on the ring, JTK, and a school name, and made Facebook posts June 8 about his discovery. 

“I wanted to do something nice for somebody,” he says. 

Within 24 hours he found Keelen, now of Easton, Pa. The post had been shared almost 30 times, including onto the Watchung Hills High School page. A classmate of Keelen's tagged him after figuring out from the initials it was him.

“It’s heartwarming that someone would make that kind of an effort to find me after all these years,” he says. 

On June 12, Keelen received the ring from DiMaria-Sadorski in the mail. A jeweler is currently polishing the stone and resizing the keepsake. 

Keelen theorizes the ring was buried in the sand, then redeposited in the creek after Superstorm Sandy in 2012.  

But, he adds. “I would like to know what happened all these years.”