Growing up in Miami, David Perry spent many a summer day at Crandon Beach.
It was there, 50 years ago, that he lost something precious. While he was taking his first waterskiing lesson, his gold ring from Georgia Tech's Class of 1952 slipped off his finger and into the water.
''I treasured it,'' Perry said. ``But I figured it was gone.''
Gone it was until Wednesday, when the Miami High graduate got the news in a phone call to his Seattle-area home: His ring had been found, buried under a foot of sand on the ocean floor, not far from the coast of Key Biscayne.
''I just can't believe it,'' said Perry, 77, a retired Naval Reserve captain and aerospace engineering manager. ``After so long, it was so unexpected.''
The man who reunited the ring with its owner is Jorge Balmori, 54, a world geography teacher at Western High School in Davie.
Last Sunday, Balmori and his two sons were searching for underwater treasures with a metal detector near Key Biscayne. About 100 feet off shore, the device began to beep, and Balmori and son Jorge Jr., 20, started digging. They found a shiny, gold ring with a large red stone.
Balmori, a regular with the metal detector, had pulled up pieces of jewelry before -- but with no trace of who their owners might be. This ring was different. Not only did it bear the Georgia Tech logo, graduation year and letters of Sigma Chi fraternity, it had ''D.L. Perry'' engraved on the inside.
Balmori made it his mission to find Perry, wherever he was. Back home in Davie, he started with the Internet. A ''D.L. Perry'' search found thousands of matches. No online whiz, Balmori turned to Dennis Rodrigues, another world geography teacher at Western, for help.
Rodrigues, 45, got in touch with the national headquarters of Sigma Chi, whose archives located Perry in Maple Valley, Wash.
When a Sigma Chi rep called the Perry home Wednesday, he wasn't there. Perry returned home from the grocery store to an excited wife.
''She showed me all these notes she had scribbled and told me someone had found my ring,'' Perry said.
He got Balmori and Rodrigues on the phone, and they became fast friends, sharing stories about their lives.
''We were so excited, hoping that the ring brings him a lot of fond memories,'' Balmori said.
''To think that they would take the time to try and track me down, it really is incredible,'' Perry said. ``It's simply heartwarming.''
Now, as Perry watches the mail for his ring, he hopes to soon meet his new friends.
The ring meant so much to Perry that his previous wife bought him a replacement. After years of wear, it bears scratches and other signs of age.
The original? Preserved half a century under a foot of sand, it looks almost new.
