Al DiStefano with the ring he received upon graduating from Fordham University in 1969. The ring was found by David Orlowski using a metal detector just a few miles from where DiStefano says he lost it.
Al DiStefano
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Al DiStefano
It was May 1969 when Al DiStefano stood on a dock on Long Island, New York, watching the sunset.
“I was leaning over the railing,” DiStefano said, “and the ring just slipped off my finger, and I watched it go down into the darkness. And I said, ‘Well, that’s gone. I’m never going to get that back.'”
That ring was set with a red garnet and engraved with the seal of Fordham University — from which DiStefano has just graduated — as well as his name and the year.
A closer look at Al DiStefano’s Fordham University class ring.
Al DiStefano
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Al DiStefano
It rested underwater for over five decades until earlier this summer, when an electrician named David Orlowski took his metal detector to Cedar Beach in Mt. Sinai, New York.
“I was about up to my knees at low tide and got a really strong hit on the metal detector,” Orlowski said. “I dug quite a few times, pretty deep, and finally pulled it up. And I was like, ‘Wow, look at that thing!’ Not realizing what it was.”
Back home, Orlowski sat with the ring for a few days. He considered…