Discovery of alumna’s Clemson Ring leads to an unexpected friendship
A Clemson Ring. One of the most symbolic pieces of one’s time at Clemson University, washed away in the ocean.
During the summer of 2025, Caroline Crowe ’23 was in Daytona Beach, Florida, visiting fellow alumni and enjoying herself on a beach vacation. She had worn her ring to the beach because she didn’t want to leave it behind in the hotel room. She thought it’d be safe if she kept it on.
“I was playing with one of the kids throwing a ball back and forth, and I just kept feeling my ring slip up my fingers,” she recalled. “So, I told him, ‘Hey, I’m going to go put this up so it doesn’t fall off.’ I took it off my finger and turned around to go back, and I dropped it right there in the water.”
Crowe and her friends searched relentlessly for the ring, but the current was too strong and had taken it away. That is, until local metal detectorist Larry Soncrant later found it while searching for hidden treasures beneath the sand.
For Soncrant, the find was one in a million. “As a metal detectorist, our goal is to go out and hunt things,” he said. “And the hunt is great, and I enjoy finding things. But when you find the owner of something, that is the epitome of success.”
He realized immediately what he’d discovered was a class ring. After taking it home and putting it under a microscope to try to find a name on it, “it popped out at me, and I couldn’t quite make it out,” he recalled. “And I asked a couple opinions, and everyone said it looked like Caroline D. Crowe.”
Soncrant, with the help of his wife and daughter, scoured the internet to try to locate Crowe. Emailing. Messaging on Facebook. Googling. Anything he could do to try to get this ring back to her. After trying her Clemson email a few times, he finally got a response.
Soncrant was determined to get Crowe her ring back and wanted to hand-deliver it. Crowe said in their initial phone conversation, Soncrant told her, “I have to get this ring to you. I don’t want money. I don’t want a reward. I don’t want you to do anything. All I want is to be able to deliver this ring to you in person and take a selfie with you.”
So, Soncrant and his wife drove to Charleston, South Carolina, where Crowe lives, and returned the ring. They all shared a meal together while exchanging life stories and experiences. “It felt like we had known each other for longer,” Crowe said. “We just chatted and acted like old friends catching up.”
This unexpected chain of events has blossomed into a true friendship between Soncrant and Crowe. They keep in touch and frequently update each other on their life’s happenings. Said Crowe, “After the fact, I’m glad I lost my ring because it brought me two new friends.”
