A history mystery: New Hanover High School Class Ring returns home after decades
WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — A 1942 New Hanover High School class ring has traveled from Wilmington to Germany, California, and back home again, sparking a mystery. The ring was found by an American soldier during World War II in Germany, but its journey didn’t end there.
The Search for the Ring’s Owner
Two years ago, New Hanover High School Principal Phillips Sutton received an email from a family in California, eager to return the ring to its rightful owner.
“Initially, the initials that he gave were ‘MGA,’ so we talked to some folks at the district level to see if we had a list of folks who graduated from New Hanover High School in 1942,” Sutton explained.
Despite their efforts, the search turned up empty. That’s when Sutton enlisted the help of Ben Ivey, a former New Hanover student and current treasurer of the alumni association. Ivey suggested they take the ring to a local jeweler for help with the engraving.
The Mystery Begins to Unravel
“We had Michael Kingoff and his team look at the script inside, and they confirmed it was an ‘S’,” Ivey said. “Went back to Mrs. Maarschalk, and she confirmed with her class that it was Mary Silvia Allen, class of ’42.”
With the owner’s name in hand, it was time to uncover how the ring had made its way across the world. That’s when World War II historian and 1951 New Hanover graduate Wilbur Jones joined the investigation.
A Love Story from WWII?
Jones quickly recognized that the ring’s journey might be linked to a love story from the war. He explained that it was common for sweethearts to exchange keepsakes before soldiers went off to war. Jones believes that Mary gave the ring to a “strawman”—possibly her true love—who was serving as an aviator on a B-17 bomber.
“On a certain mission over Germany, his plane was shot down. He bailed out with the crew, and the Germans captured him somewhere on the Dutch border with Germany,” Jones said.
Jones suspects that the aviator might have been William Weaks.
“We applied basic logic, WWII history, and the fact that I love Agatha Christie… and we went from there,” Jones added.
The Mystery Continues
While the mystery is still not fully solved, the search has sparked curiosity across the community. Teacher Kylee Maarschalk turned the story into a history lesson for her students, allowing them to explore the details of the ring’s journey and make predictions.
“Here’s what my fourth-block students explored, and here’s what they found. What do you guys think? Make predictions—what do we know about the time period?” Maarschalk said.
For former yearbook editor and student Emory Radford, the story offered an important lesson beyond history.
“I think this task really helped us kind of buckle in and realize that our work is gonna be around forever,” Radford said.
The Final Chapter?
Mary Silvia Allen, the ring’s owner, passed away in 1982. Unfortunately, her family members couldn’t help crack the mystery.
Historian Wilbur Jones published his full investigation in the Star News.
