This report includes ring recovery activity and finances for the period 1 July – 30 September, 2005.
We recovered two class rings in this period, and initiated purchase of a third.
The Class of 1935 ring of the late Major General Melville Brown Coburn, 10447 was recovered from an Ebay seller on 2 July. His widow preferred that the ring go to West Point rather than be returned to her. Consequently, we donated the ring to the Military Academy Museum where it became the first example from this class to join the collection.
Here is a photo of this ring, about 100 Kbytes in size to that it can be more easily downloaded through a dial-up modem.
The second ring was also a Class of 1935 ring that of the late Lieutenant General Harry Herndon Critz (who, incidentally, as a Major General was my Commanding General in the 1966-1967 time frame at Fort Sill).
This ring had been stolen not long after General Critz’s death in Lawton, Oklahoma on 2 May 1982. It was recovered on 14 July from a person who had contacted AOG to begin an effort to dispose of it after "my son found the ring in a curb side gutter on his way home from school when he was nine. He’s now 21." In the intervening 12 years, the ring sat forgotten in the bottom of a cigar box.
We were delighted to be able to bring this ring back into the hands of the West Point Community by returning it to General Critz’s daughter, Terry Mericle, and her husband, Colonel (Ret’d) Russell Mericle. Here is a link to a photo of the ring, also about 100 Kbytes in size.
The third ring was the initiation of the purchase of an unnamed Class of 1994 ring that had been purchased from an Ebay seller who is a friend of West Point and who desired to begin the process of returning the ring to the West Point Community. This purchase is not yet complete, however.
This ends ring recovery activity in the 2nd Quarter of 2005. Our financial activity for the this quarter may be seen at this link.
We are overdue with a report for the 4th Quarter and we will send that report along shortly.
Donations to help ring recovery continue this effort are very much needed, would be most welcome and greatly appreciated . Donations may be made by credit card or by check may be mailed to:
West Point Ring Recovery Program
c/o: William P. O’Neill
26 Canton Street
North Easton, MA 02356-1345
If there are questions or comments, we would be really happy to respond to them. Please send them to us:
usmarings@west-point.org
If you are interested in being included on our ring recovery list, please use the "subscribe now" option at:
http://www.west-point.org/wp/ring_recovery/
or contact me directly. We’ll be glad to sign you up; only takes a minute and it takes a lot less than that if you wish to unsubscribe later.
On behalf of Bill O’Neill, ’92 and LTC Michael McGurk, ’85 and very respectfully submitted,
David McClellan
’01 Father
ring recovery