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UTK alum reunited with class ring nearly 50 years after losing it in Alabama

"It was about four inches deep in the dirt but, other than a few scratches and dulling of the stone, it cleaned up good as new," said Barbara Burgess, the woman who found the ring.

A University of Tennessee alum has been reunited with his class ring 50 years after he lost it.

A hobby metal detectorist in Mobile, Alabama dug up a class ring in the front yard of a home in the Hillsdale Heights subdivision behind the University of South Alabama last month, according to the UT Knoxville Office of Alumni Affairs.

“It was about four inches deep in the dirt but, other than a few scratches and dulling of the stone, it cleaned up good as new," said Barbara Burgess, the woman who found the ring.

Burgess said the ring had the initials SRS on the inside so she called UT and the search began.

It belonged to Stephen R. Sheppard.

Sheppard, a surgeon, said he lived in the house in Hillsdale Heights when he was in medical school nearly 50 years ago.

"He thought he might have given the ring to a girlfriend, but he couldn’t remember whether he’d ever gotten it back," UT Knoxville Office of Alumni Affairs said.

“I have dug up some valuable finds in my hobby of metal detecting,” Burgess said. “But nothing is more valuable to me than returning something I found to its rightful owner.”

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