VOLUME 12, NO. 2     JANUARY 1999

Found Ring Makes Life Rosy for WPI Alum

It took only four phone callsÑand 11 yearsÑfor one WPI alum to get his class ring back. On April 29, Sylvia Fales of Mattapoisett, Mass., called Alumni Director Martina Gorski-Strong to tell her she'd bought a WPI ring for $2.69 at her local Salvation Army store. The ring was engraved BRS '81, Fales said.

Gorski-Strong asked Wire editors Neil Norum and Bonnie Gelbwasser to put a notice of the find in the upcoming summer issue. Before writing the paragraph, Gelbwasser decided to check the 1993 Alumni Directory, where she found a match in Bradford R. Steinka, technical manager at Mircocom Inc., in Norwood, Mass. One phone call to Fales, one to Steinka's home in Franklin, and the circle was complete. Finder and owner met shortly thereafter. Steinka was surprised and delighted to receive the call. It turns out that robbers had stolen the ring from the house in Stoughton where he and his wife, Lisa, were living in 1987.

They stole a lot of our stuff," says Steinka. "Two TVs, a VCR, all of our jewelryÑeven my grandfather's harmonica. I never wore rings before I graduated from WPI and I wanted to keep it in the family, but I figured it was gone forever after the house was broken into."

Fales was equally happy to return the ring to its owner. A collector of antique jewelry, she is always looking for unusual or valuable pieces and she frequently stops in at the nearby Salvation Army store. She also enjoys reuniting people with things they leave behind at the Chowder House in Mattapoisett, where she works. "I love to help people out," she says. "She's one whale of a samaritan," says Steinka, who thanked Fales with a gift certificate to the Mattapoisett Inn. "The ring is my tie to WPI and I am grateful to have it back."

Ring in The New

From left, Chad Tino '99, Amy Sinyei '98 and Chris Neumaier '98 examine the new class ring. The design, unveiled in April, is the product of a one-year collaboration between the students, the Alumni Association and representatives of Jostens Inc. The ring features the official seal on a garnet, with the Two Towers (Washburn and Boynton) on one side and the Goat's Head on the other.