High School class ring reunited with owner 20 years later

TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — Susan Cooper and Jean Rhoades act like they’ve known each other for years. But it’s actually a high school class ring that has sparked this new friendship.

“It’s funny because I recognized her as soon as she got out of her car,” says Cooper the day she met with Rhoades who had been holding on to her high school class ring for two decades.

“It was 20 years ago when I was teaching in the middle school here at Fountain of Life that in the ladies restroom I found this class ring,” says Rhoades.

Susan’s daughter had been wearing it at school when she washed her hands and forgot it in the bathroom.

Cooper says, “my kids went here at the same time that she was teaching here and it’s possible that she taught my daughters fourth grade class.”

When Rhoades found the ring, she immediately tried to reunite it with its owner, saying, “I put signage around campus, ring found, please contact and I gave my information.”

But no one claimed the ring. She put it in her jewelry box and forgot about it all these years until she was watching the Johnny Depp trial on TV.

Rhoades says, “the rings, I mean you can’t help but notice in that trial he’s wearing the rings.”

So she searched her jewelry box to find the class ring. Thanks to the engraving on the ring, she was able to track down the high school, which led her to a Facebook page of that graduating class.

The ring was engraved “SF.”

“Apparently there was only two of us at my high school with the initials SF,” says Cooper.

And it just so turned out both women still lived in Southern Arizona.

“She got her ring back because she lives right here in Vail, Arizona.”

But now the story comes full circle. Not only did Susan get her ring back 20 years later, she also gained a new friend along the way.

Rhoades says, “she’s a soccer player so I hope to go attend some of her soccer games.”