Lost and Found: UT Ring Rescued by an Aggie

By Alex Vickery in TXEX on November 16, 2016 at 9:42 am | No Comments

It was a weekday morning just like any other when Meagan Kamerbeek was driving to work in Dallas. But when she reached for her UT ring, it wasn’t in the coin drawer where she had left it the night before. She tore the car apart, frantically searching for her beloved Longhorn gold, but it was nowhere to be found. Not long after she traded in her car and lost all hope that she would ever find it. 

“It was certainly a sore spot for me,” Kamberbeek says. She recalls fondly her parents accompanying her to the ring ceremony her senior year. “It was really a big deal and I was heartbroken to have lost it.”

When she married an Aggie, he replaced her class ring as a wedding gift, but not before inscribing “gig ’em” on the inside of the band. “Our wedding was very divided,” she says. “The Aggie fight song played. I wore a burnt-orange handkerchief.”

She began to adjust to her new ring, even with its facetious inscription. “I was really happy to have some outward symbol of my time at Texas back—something that I’m obviously very proud of,” Kamberbeek says. Life went on, but then, nine years later, she received an email from the Texas Exes telling her that her old ring had been found and returned—by an Aggie.

The Aggie hero, who we’ll just call “John” (he didn’t want his full name revealed), mailed the ring to the Texas Exes with a letter that said, in part, “It was found in a pawn shop in the Dallas area. I know how important a class ring can be.”

“As Aggies, we value our Aggie Rings and affiliation with our university—just as graduates of the University of Texas do,” says Kathryn Greenwade, vice president of The Association of Former Students, “So it’s not surprising an Aggie would take the time to return this ring. In doing so, he actually repaid a favor. Several years ago, a Longhorn found an Aggie Ring in Dallas and made sure it was safely returned to its owner. It’s great to see this story come full circle and see the mutual respect of our alumni.”

Kamberbeek says she has offered to repay John, but he politely declined, insisting that it was the right thing to do. As for the ring’s journey, “I’m guessing that someone found it when I turned the car in and pawned it,” Kamberbeek says. “As they say, they always find their rightful owner.”

Tags: UT class ring, ut ring