The rightful owner of the mysterious 1968 WHHS class ring has been determined: Kevin J. Healey of the WHHS class of 1968.

Unfortunately,  Healey passed away tragically in 1984. However, he has family members who also graduated from WHHS and still live in Wayne. The Patriot Press spoke to Healey’s niece Kelly Healey Radburn and brother David Healey.  Radburn described how “choked up” the Healey family is to “after all these years finally get something of Kevin’s.”

The family members responded to previous articles on the mystery ring that were shared to Facebook Wayne Hills groups via The Patriot Press.

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Kevin Healey was serving in the armed forces at the time he graduated from Wayne Hills. The Patriot Press and the Healey family speculate that Healey’s class ring most likely ended up in Colorado as a result of his being stationed there during his time in the armed forces.

It is extremely likely that Healey purchased a ring, as the WHHS class of 1968 purchased their rings during their junior year, before Healey began serving. Radburn also stated that all of Healey’s siblings purchased class rings, so it is likely that he did as well.

Earlier this year, a woman from Colorado contacted WHHS Principal Maureen Weir stating that she had found a strange ring in her box of “high school stuff,” despite having no connection to WHHS or anyone from the 1968 graduating class. Once the ring was sent across the country to WHHS, it was determined that the initials engraved on the inside of the ring were “KJH.”

Using a 1968 WHHS yearbook, The Patriot Press determined that the ring had to belong to one of two graduates with the initials KJH: either Karl J. Harz or Healey.

WHHS 1968 alum James Freeswick, also the student council president, was able to contact Harz, who maintained that he has his ring in his possession, with a “big chip” in the corner of the stone. Therefore, it became clear that the owner of the mysterious ring is Healey.

Weir is happy to see that the mysterious ring will be returned to the family of its rightful owner. “I think it’s so interesting, just in time for the 50th anniversary [of WHHS]” stated Weir. Tracking down the ring’s owner also nicely coincides with Memorial Day, and WHHS plans to honor Healey as a veteran for his service during the Vietnam War with the return of the ring to the family.

Healey was a member of WHHS’s first graduating class in 1968. However, “Wayne Hills Senior High School” opened its doors in 1966, and thus 2016 marks the school’s 50th anniversary. Prior to the existence of WHHS, all Wayne students attended Wayne Senior High School, now known as Wayne Valley High School. In order to not tear apart the Wayne High School class of 1967 one year before they were due to graduate, during the 1966-67 school year, WVHS had all of Wayne’s seniors (class of 1967) and WHHS had all of Wayne’s freshmen (class of 1970). Therefore, WHHS’s first graduating class was the class of 1968.

The Patriot Press is proud to wrap up the investigation and return the mysterious ring to the Healey family just in time for Memorial Day and the 50th anniversary of WHHS.