Class Ring Lost at Sea Found 47 Years Later

A Cape Cod man stumbled upon a valuable keepsake that was lost on a beach 47 years ago.

Jim Wirth hunts for lost treasures. He sweeps beaches and listens for his metal detector to go off. On a July morning, he found something special — a class ring from Manhattan College, Class of 1969.

His chance find did not take him to a pawn shop. Instead, it set him off on a mission to find its owner.

The name engraved inside was Patrick O'Hagan. His major on the side was "EE," for electrical engineering.

Wirth did a simple search online and got a hit — a memoir written by Christine Kehl O'Hagan, Patrick's wife.

Wirth tracked down a phone number in Long Island, New York. Christine answered the call.

"He said, 'Well, I have your husband's college ring,'" she recalled. "I was just, like, stunned."

The ring was lost in 1970 while the couple was on their honeymoon in Dennisport.

"I sort of got knocked over by a wave, and I came up and I felt it slip off my hand," Patrick said.

Even as the decades passed, Christine never gave up hope of finding it.

"I always felt the ring was in there, in there somewhere and that we would somehow – it would find its way back to us," she said.

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