Forty years ago, the Caribbean Sea took something special from John “Jay” Comi ? his gold Calvert Hall High School Class of 1966 ring.
“We have a saying in the Virgin Islands,” said Natasha Smith, during a recent telephone interview from the island. “What the sea takes, it gives back when it?s ready.”
Well, the sea gave it back a decade ago, but it took another 10 years, until this month, for the ring to make its way back onto his hand.
Comi, 58, who now lives in Raleigh, N.C., joined the Merchant Marine shortly after graduation in Baltimore, serving from 1967-69 as a crew member of the SS Argentina, a U.S. passenger ship. His gold ring, with a ruby stone, disappeared after a swim on liberty off St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands.
“I knew it was gone immediately when I got out of the water,” Comi said. “I turned around, looked back at the beach and recognized it was hopeless to look.”
He received the ring as a junior, and it was especially meaningful. After changing schools frequently while growing up, Comi struggled academically until he entered Baltimore’s Calvert Hall as a freshman.
“The religious study, the discipline ? in a positive way ? was very good for me,” said Comi, who converted to Catholicism after graduating and getting married. “For the first time, I got to choose what school I went to and started making an effort studying. It made all difference.”
Comi thought about the ring from time to time, once even phoning the manufacturer to see if a replacement was possible.
“They had stopped using real gold in 1972, they?re pewter now,” he said. “Theydidn?t have the same model available, either. They said they could make a ring and put ?Calvert Hall, Class of 1966? on it, but it wouldn?t have been the same. I gave up 25 years ago.”
Then in January, Doug Heidrick, director of communications at Calvert Hall, received a call from Smith in St. Thomas. She said her father had found a Calvert Hall ring in the water in the late 1990s. She wasn?t able to read the entire name on the ring, but did know the person graduated in 1966, the first name was “John,” middle initial was “H” and the last name started with “C-o-m.”
After looking into the school?s database, Heidrick called Comi, who still receives the alumni magazine, and he confirmed he had lost the ring. Smith asked Comi to scan and e-mail a copy of his drivers license, just to be sure, and then mailed the ring to North Carolina.
Comi said he also has spoken to Smith?s father, Simon Mohammad, who had found the ring while surf fishing. When his friend went into the sea to untangle his line, Mohammad saw something flash by his foot and grabbed their waterproof metal detector. He discovered the lost, slightly buried, gold ring.
At that time, St. Thomas had limited Internet service, Smith said, so Mohammad put the ring away, but vowed to search for the owner when better online access was available. Smith added that her father thought the ring may have belonged to a priest because they believed the engraved St. John Baptist de La Salle on the ring to be Jesus Christ. The ring was forgotten about until recently found again in a jewelry box, prompting Smith?s Internet search.
Comi, an identity theft consultant today, said the ring, for which he paid $125, is probably worth 10 times that now because of the gold. He said that after 40 years in the surf, “it looks better than it would had I worn it for all that time.”
“It is like I got a part of my own identity back,” Comi said. “I wouldn?t sell it for anything in the world after all this time. It?s priceless to me.”
