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Long lost class ring returned

Altoona senior lost ring in 1967 at War Memorial

Clete Wilt holds up his 1967 Altoona High School class ring which was returned to him by Bob Wertz (right) of Johnstown. Wilt lost the ring 50 years ago while watching a basketball game at the Cambria County War Memorial. Mirror photo by J.D. Cavrich

DUNCANSVILLE — Nearly 50 years to the day, Clete Wilt sat in his Penn Farms home waiting to be reunited with a possession he thought was long gone.

Then came at knock at his door.

“It’s just amazing,” Wilt said Friday. “I’d think about it at different times and to get the call that someone found it. … I never thought it would show up.”

Like many of his peers, the 1967 Altoona High School graduate purchased a class ring to wear during his senior year.

On a cold, February night, Wilt wore the ring to the Cambria County War Memorial to cheer on the 1966-67 Mountain Lion basketball team during a 99-91 barnburner win over Johnstown.

“I remember that it was a little bit loose on my hand,” Wilt said. “I remember clapping a lot, and the next morning, I realized my ring was gone. I thought it had to be at the game.”

Wilt said he called the War Memorial the next day but was informed that nobody had turned in the ring.

After 50 years, of course, he had given up on it.

Then he got a phone call from the Altoona Area High School alumni office, which had been contacted about the ring by Bob Wertz, a Johnstown native.

Wertz said his aunt Betty Morrow recently discovered the ring in a box left behind by her ex-husband.

Wertz had gone to visit his elderly aunt when she asked him for a favor.

“She said, ‘I have these rings that I found and I’d like to get them back to the people that they belong to,'” he said.

Wertz said Morrow’s ex-husband was affiliated with the War Memorial.

“Somebody probably turned it in, and he planned on tracking down the owner, but I guess life got in the way,” Wertz said.

Wertz delivered the ring to Wilt on Friday morning.

AASD helped trace

The ring features the initials CJW and the year 1967.

Wertz initially struck out looking for an Altoona class yearbook online, but he called the school district to help him track down the owner.

He was eventually connected to Mallary Hainzey, the community relations secretary at Altoona Area School District, who found a match for the initials and year that Wertz provided.

Paula Foreman, the community relations director at AASD and executive director of the Altoona Area Alumni Association, was happy to help.

“These are the things that make this (job) fun and enjoyable,” Foreman said. “This is one of the advantages of having an alumni association.”

Foreman praised Wertz for taking the initiative to reunite Wilt with his ring, and added, “It has to take Mr. Wilt back in time a little bit.”

Wilt said he looks back fondly at his time at Altoona High. He described himself as a sports fanatic and said he spent his time playing baseball or attending games like the one at the War Memorial.

Vietnam vet

After he graduated, Wilt began a printing apprenticeship with the Mirror but left to join the Marines for a tour in Vietnam. He would eventually work as a printer at the Mirror and then in technical service at Penn State University.

Unfortunately for Wilt, the ring is not the only sentimental possession he has lost in his life.

“When I came back in ’68, they lost my gear,” he said.

Wilt returned to have his tonsils removed, but his uniform, medals and other belongings never showed up.

He joked Friday that maybe next year, those belongings will turn up 50 years later.

Wertz, a 1961 Greater Johnstown High School graduate, served in Vietnam at the same time as Wilt. The returning of the ring provided the two men the opportunity to share stories from their past.

Class rings are designed to represent the alumni pride, but now this ring represents something more.

“Just the satisfaction of getting it back,” Wilt said. “I thought I was never going to see it again, and when I got the call, I thought, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me.'”

Wertz also recognized the symbolism.

“Things may never be lost. They’ll eventually come back or show up,” Wertz said. “You never can tell what life is going to pop up for you.”

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