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Anxiety and exhilaration | Earful | Ring cycle | Closer look | Three decades of advice and counsel | Jam on

Ring cycle

It’s a small miracle that Jenny Detterman ’04 is the new owner of the class ring first worn by her great-grandmother Phoebe Anderson Davis ’24. Among the six Davis relatives who attended Skidmore, it was daughter Helen Davis Smith ’49 who had the ring when Detterman was nearing graduation. One Saturday, Smith brought the ring to campus for her granddaughter, and as the two were walking down a Sara­toga street, the ring slipped off Detterman’s finger, rolled under a parked car, and fell through a storm grate. Both were devastated by the loss. But on Monday, Detterman told her story to the Saratoga police, a road crew lifted the grate, and the ring was retrieved (and promptly taken to a jeweler to be sized more snugly). Says Detterman, “Being able to wear this ring is an honor. It symbolizes a shared experience we have all had. That connection through four generations is amazing.” —SR