A story about a UD study abroad program in Australia, published in a local Australian newspaper, rang a bell with Ron Shaw, a local in Wagga Wagga, New South Wales. When Shaw saw the story about Bill Saylor, UD professor of animal and food sciences, and his ag students studying at Charles Sturt University he knew he had found a connection to Delaware that he had been seeking for 35 years.
In the early 1970s, Shaw found two rings in a restroom at the Wentworth Hotel in Sydney. One is inscribed “Greg and Kerrie, 1967” and the other is a 1969 class ring engraved with “Delaware Valley Regional” and the initials GAS. Since many American soldiers stationed in Vietnam took leave in Australia in the 1960s and 1970s, Shaw always thought the rings might have belonged to a military man. He tucked them away, always hoping he would some day find a connection to Delaware-his only clue as to where the rings were from.
Little did he know that 35 years later The Daily Advertiser would write about a group from UD studying at a university near his home town. He quickly called the public relations office at Charles Sturt to inquire about the students from Delaware and made arrangements to meet Saylor.
This was Saylor's third study abroad trip to Australia, where he leads a group of students studying livestock production. The students attend lectures by Saylor in the morning and tour a host of livestock operations, auctions and processing facilities or take cultural excursions in the afternoons. At the end of their stay, they spend several days in Canberra and then head back to Sydney. Saylor, his wife, Karen, and Shaw met for coffee just two days before the UD group was scheduled to leave Wagga Wagga. Shaw showed Saylor the rings he had kept in a little velvet bag all this time. Saylor said Shaw seemed genuinely relieved that he had found a way to get the rings back to the U.S. Saylor quickly determined that the class ring was from Delaware Valley Regional High School, which, as it turns out, is in Frenchtown, N.J. Saylor offered to contact the school for Shaw and brought the rings back with him.
Once back in the States, Saylor contacted Cindy Bridge, principals' secretary at Delaware Valley Regional, and she set to work researching records to see what students with the initials GAS and the first name Greg graduated in 1969.
She came up with a likely candidate--an Australian exchange student named Gregory Smith who returned home after a year at Delaware Valley Regional and reportedly enrolled in the University of Sydney.
Bridge grew up near the high school and several members of the Class of 1969 are friends of her parents. She started asking around to see if anyone remembered Smith. At Easter dinner with her family, she discovered that her stepmother's mom knew the Javes family that had hosted Smith all those years ago. She knew that the family had moved to Tennessee but had lost touch with them. Bridge searched the Internet and found just one family in Tennessee with that name. It turned out to be the same family and, better still, Bridge learned that they still keep in touch with Smith, who was now living in Australia. They gave her Smith's e-mail and she quickly contacted him. Smith was thrilled to discover that the rings had been found.
Saylor visited Bridge in May and gave her the rings to mail back. Meantime, Saylor and Smith have become e-mail friends. It turns out that Smith did attend Delaware Valley Regional as an exchange student during his senior year and graduated from there. He studied economics part-time at Sydney University, working full-time as a management cadet at Qantas Airlines. In 1971, he accepted a scholarship to Lehigh University in Pennsylvania and again stayed with his host family in Milford, N.J. After a year and a broken romance with a homecoming queen, however, he returned to Australia and went to work in marketing for Chesebrough-Ponds in Melbourne. He continued to work in the health and beauty industry and eventually ended up working for Juvena of Switzerland for 25 years, the latter 13 years as CEO. He retired in April 2005 and moved to a farm in New South Wales.
In spite of having suffered from a brain tumor and having several heart and back surgeries, Smith has sponsored many Third World children and families, traveled the globe almost twice a year for 25 years, played semi-pro rugby, run in more than 30 half-marathons, several full marathons and many charity triathalons.
“I had no idea how much reminiscing I would do, as a result of the imminent repatriation of the rings,” he said. “I stay in touch with many of my old classmates, and they are as amazed as I am at this story of the class ring. I have not worn a ring since 1971. I will dine out on this story for weeks to come.”Labels: academy awards, financial aid, free education, high school, scholarship, student loans, study abroad |
