Article helps to track owner of class ring
by BRIAN NADIG
The 1977 Taft High School graduate whose class ring was recently found buried on school grounds will soon get his ring back after he lost it more than 40 years ago.
News of the ring’s discovery was first reported in the Oct. 10 issue of Nadig Newspapers’ Chicago’s Northwest Side Press. Later that day Mike Winfrey was getting inundated with messages from friends regarding the article. "My phone was blowing up yesterday," he said last week.
Winfrey said that he lost the ring in the fall of 1976 after his girlfriend had broken up with him and returned his ring back.
Winfrey placed the ring in his sock for what he though would be safekeeping because he was heading to gym class. However, the ring fell out of the sock and remained missing until last month when area resident and former Taft High School Local School Council member Joe McFeely was scanning the field with a metal detector and found it buried 6 inches underground near a cottonwood tree. Winfrey’s name was engraved on the ring.
Winfrey said that he does think about the ring every once in a while and that he never had it replaced. "I bought it with my own money," he said.
1981 Winfrey ended up marrying another 1977 Taft graduate, Gail Mieling. Mike and Gail moved to Bartlett in 1987 and continue to reside there.
Taft principal Mark Grishaber will present the ring to Winfrey during the Taft LSC meeting at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 6. At a previous LSC meeting Grishaber asked the public for help in locating Winfrey.
