Friend in the Forest

A fellow alum/co-worker and I were hunting deer in Kershaw Co., SC one cold day in November in 2003. My companion had some luck in taking a deer so I drove my vehicle to his hunting spot to help him load the game into the back of the vehicle. As I mentioned it was extremely cold which must make my fingers shrink because somehow during the process my ring must have slipped off my hand. I didn’t know for months where I had lost my ring.

I was working for a forest products company at the time that happened to own the land we were hunting. One day I answered the phone and one of the company foresters was calling to ask if I graduated in 2000 and to confirm my middle name. I confirmed the information (which was inscribed on the inside of the ring) and he said, “I think I have something of yours.” As it turns out, the forester was also a Clemson graduate and wanted to be sure that the ring made it back to it’s rightful owner. To this day I’m not sure how he found it or how he tracked me down, but I’m awefully glad he did.

— Tom Fletcher, 00