You could find almost anything while renovating lockers at the Heskett Center.

Wichita State maintenance supervisor Alan Beisel just about has: from student ID cards to old issues of The Sunflower.

He found the most interesting relic about two weeks ago.

As he and other maintenance workers were ripping out old lockers in the women’s locker room, Beisel noticed something resting in several inches of dust—a 1989 high school class ring.

“Originally, I thought about putting it in the lost and found,” Beisel said. “But then I thought, ‘Well, you know, it’s been about 20 years. No one’s going to be looking for it.’”

Beisel searched for the ring’s owner instead. His son-in-law graduated from the same high school, so he put a post up on Facebook asking if anyone recognized the woman’s name engraved on the ring. However, her maiden name posed a problem.

“They knew she’d gotten married but didn’t know where she lived or what her married name was,” Beisel said. “At that point I thought, ‘I’ll just contact the Alumni Association here at WSU.’ They were able to give me her married name and her address, but no phone number.”

But a confidential phone number couldn’t dissuade Beisel from getting the ring to the woman.

“After work that evening, I drove over to her place and delivered the ring to her,” Beisel said. “I think her husband questioned when I came to the door with a ring for his wife.”

Beisel said the woman was happy to have the ring returned. 

“She was really excited,” Beisel said. “She remembered the day she lost it. She said she was coming over here to work out, took her ring off, and went to lay it in the locker and it went right down the crack in the locker. So she was very excited about it.”

Some might not agree that this act of kindness is important or even worth the effort, but for Beisel this deed was the same as giving the woman back good memories from her high school days.

“A lot of things have sentimental value to people,” Beisel said. “As you get older, small things like that mean a lot to a person. I just wanted to see it get back to the rightful owner.”

The ring’s owner could not be reached for comment.