When a Canadian professor lost his class ring while splashing around in Barbados with his son, finding a needle in a haystack must have seemed like a breeze by comparison.
Yet miraculously, after 47 years of tumbling about in the surf, sand, and shells, the man celebrated his 83rd birthday by slipping on his MacMaster Alumni ring again after it was found by a freedriver.
As one might imagine, as soon as the ring wasn’t immediately found, Perigo was certain he’d never see it again.
“One day I took my younger son and waded into the ocean. He was knocked over by a wave, so I reached to grab hold of him. He pulled on my hand and my Mac Alumni ring came off,” recalled Perigo in an email to the university press. “We searched for it but were unsuccessful.”
He had received the gold and ruby ornament when he graduated in 1965 from the faculty of science. Fast forward to 2024, and something truly unbelievable happened.
Incredibly, there was another MacMaster University scholar visiting Barbados recently, and along with being a Mac alumni, was also a professional freediver; and along with being a professional freediver, also brought along an underwater metal detector.
The freediver, named Alex Davis, found Mr. Perigo’s ring, having decided to swim about on the same stretch of water, if it can be believed, and recognized it as belonging to one of his colleagues.
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“I found a McMaster University signet ring with three initials on the inside,” he wrote to alumni officer Laura Escalante. “I found it metal detecting in Barbados this morning and suspect it’s been lost for some time.”
Compared to Perigo and Davis, Escalante had a fairly straightforward treasure hunt in front of her, as the ring was not only engraved with the year 1965, but with the initials FMP. In little time, she determined it was Frederick Morgan Perigo.
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Organizing contact between the two men, there was plenty of joy for all parties, and a delightfully unexpected birthday present for Perigo, who received it in the mail on his day of celebration.
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