After Half A Century, An Aggie Ring Returns

By Holly Rine '16

Although David Parker was born while his father, James “Jim” Carlyle Parker ’64, was a student at Texas A&M, he doesn’t remember ever seeing his father’s Aggie Ring. Before Jim Parker attended A&M, he had attended the New Mexico Military Institute, and it was an NMMI ring that David remembers seeing his father wear. 

David didn't know it then, but his father has lost his Aggie Ring during one of his two tours in Vietnam in the late 1960s. Almost 50 years later, Jim Parker's Aggie Ring made its way back to The Association of Former Students, and from there to David, who was elated to have this memento of his father’s time at A&M that he didn’t know even existed. 

Jim Parker passed away in February 2015 following a battle with Alzheimer’s, so he was never reunited with the Aggie Ring he thought was lost forever overseas. As his son recently sat in the Aggie Ring Office and held a shiny mahogany box in his hands, they began to shake slightly. As he slowly opened the box and saw his father’s Aggie Ring for the first time, his eyes filled with joy. His voice also shook, just barely, as he tried to express how grateful he was to have this precious memento that had once belonged to his father.

“Getting this Ring is so meaningful because it is a part of him that we’ve never seen before," he said. "It’s almost like a message [from him].”

When David first learned that The Association of Former Students had his father’s Aggie Ring, he was surprised that the name inscribed on the inside of it could be even be read. He said he imagined a story in his head of how the Ring had been lost in the sand on an Asian beach for 50 years, and he expected to see something in much worse condition. 

But the Aggie Ring looked almost like new. It did sustain a small bit of weathering from exposure to the elements, so the gold has a slightly tarnished copper tone. But the Ring had only spent a couple of years at most on that beach in Vietnam before it was recovered by a fellow soldier, probably in 1968 or 1969, and brought back to the United States. But the finder wasn't an Aggie, and no effort was made to the locate the original owner. It was left in storage and forgotten about until the wife of the finder was cleaning out her husband’s belongings after his death. She promptly returned the Ring to The Association of Former Students. 

The Ring Office at The Association works hard to reunite found Aggie Rings with their owners. Jon Bumann '16, a Ring Office student assistant,  explained the process. “When a Ring is recovered and turned into our office, the first place we look is their original Ring order," he said. "If nothing (helpful) shows up there, we then try to contact them through Find an Aggie." That is a big reason why The Association urges all former students to keep their contact information up to date. But not all Aggies do. "If we can’t contact them through any of these means," Bumann said, "we then begin to look for relatives who may have updated contact information. We pull out all the stops to find people and reunite them with their Aggie Rings and don’t stop until we’ve exhausted all of our options.”

After the Ring Office staff located David, he happily made the journey to College Station to receive the Ring, and he shared some information about his late father.

Jim Parker began classes at A&M, David believes, around 1962. He graduated in 1964 with a bachelor’s degree in history before continuing on to receive his master’s degree in the same subject. David assumes that his father, after attending New Mexico Military Institute, was drawn to A&M because of the strong military ties in their family and his father’s desire to continue his education in a military setting. James’s father, David’s grandfather, was USAF Maj. Gen. Hugh Arthur Parker.

Jim was a proud Aggie through and through, David said. He fondly recalled stories his dad would tell him and his brother, Derek, about his days in Aggieland. David recalled his father talking about how much he loved the football games, despite a less than desirable win-loss record at the time. Jim also told his sons how the cadets had to resort to kissing their dates on first downs instead of touchdowns back then.

Jim’s loyal date at those games was his wife, Beverly Ann, who attended classes at A&M as a member of one of the first classes of women. Jim was in the Corps of Cadets but the Parkers lived in married student housing. Beverly Ann stopped taking classes at A&M in 1965 to pursue motherhood full-time once David was born.