The ring belonging to Jeffrey Scott Lloyd II was found years ago near Fair Oaks Middle School. It was discovered by the late Donna Gutknecht, a former Webster County treasurer, who brought it to Jean Warg, the classified advertising manager at The Messenger.

Holly Rokes, an advertising sales representative for Farm News, was finally able to track Lloyd down. On Friday, his sister, Wendy Botterbrodt, and her daughter, Millie, picked up the ring.

”I think it’s really neat,” Lloyd said Friday afternoon during a telephone interview.

”It’s something obviously everyone wants to keep over the years,” he said of the ring.

The ring with a blue stone has 2002 and the words home high school and J. Scott Lloyd II engraved in it.

Lloyd, of Sugar Land, Texas, has never lived in Fort Dodge, but he has visited the city to see his sister. He figures the ring was lost about eight years ago when he was in town for a wedding.

Gutknecht was known for walking a lot and found the ring on one of her walks, according to Warg.

”She always called me Jeanie,” Warg said. ”She walked up to The Messenger and said ‘Jeanie, I found this ring. See if you can find out who it belongs to.”’

Gutknecht told her that she found the ring near the track and basketball courts at the former Fair Oaks Middle School.

Warg didn’t have any luck tracking down the owner.

”I had it in my drawer for years,” she said. ”Every once in while, I’d Google it.”

She said she called the company that made the ring, but it did not have any records that could identify the owner.

Because she is retiring next week, Warg was cleaning out her desk recently. Rokes was nearby and noticed the ring. She did an internet search and found a LinkedIn page with Lloyd’s name on it. She contacted his employer, Ryan Companies US Inc.

Lloyd said a representative of the company human resources department told him that Rokes had called. He was given her phone number.

”Immediately, I was curious,” he said.

He phoned Rokes and recalls her saying ”This is really obscure and really odd, but we have this ring and I think it’s yours.”’

After she described it, he replied ”Oh, I think that is my ring.”

”He was honestly shocked that I went through the trouble to locate him,” Rokes said.

Botterbrodt said she will give the ring to another brother who lives in Des Moines and he will take it to Lloyd in Texas.