CLEARFIELD – After 39 years a Clearfield man had his missing class ring returned to him.
Allen Bickel said that the got the ring in October 1967. Before ever wearing it, he gave it to his then-girlfriend. At one point after they broke up and Bickel got the ring back. Before going to Mansfield College, Bickel placed the ring on a nail at a camp in Hogback.
That camp burned down. Bickel said that he figure the ring had melted in the blaze.
About six weeks ago Bickel said he received a phone call from the Clearfield Area School District. School officials said that a guy named Vince had called and told them that he found a Clearfield Area High School class ring. He gave them the initials and they searched records and came up with Bickel.
Bickel contacted the man, Vince Frankowski, manager of a Swanky Bubbles Restaurant and Champagne Bar in New Jersey. Bickel learned that when Frankowski was remodeling the building he came across a ring on the floor. Thinking that it was a patron’s ring, Frankowski had it placed on the register.
The ring sat on the register for five months before he began researching it. That’s when he contacted the school district.
Bickel said that Frankowski want him to drive out to pick it up. However after some conversation, Frankowski mailed the ring to Bickel. There were some hitches, however.
“He was reluctant to give it to me,” said Bickel.
He added that in order to have it mailed he had to send scanned pictures from his year book and a graduation list.
Bickel has been investigating how the ring ended up in New Jersey.
Now the ring is safely back in Bickel’s possession, 39 years later.