OUR HONOLULU
Lost ring back after 31 years
By Bob Krauss
Advertiser Columnist
The Great Kalani High School Mystery of the Lost Ring in the Bowling Ball has been solved. Credit detectives Irene Yamamoto and Deena Yamada for tracking down the suspect.
When confronted with the evidence, Cliff Lanias, piping inspector at the Pearl Harbor Shipyard, couldn't believe it. He was afraid they'd take back his diploma.
All the while, they were just trying to return his class ring lost 31 years ago.
Some aspects of the case are still confused, such as the identity of a mysterious stranger and his story of the bowling ball.
To start at the beginning, Lanias attended high school when Kalani was a kinder, gentler place. Byung Choi, reporter-photographer for the school newspaper, asked him if the campus had changed since Lanias's student days.
"Coming back is sad because it was a happy time," he said. "It's sad to see so many security guards working around the campus. It was a lot freer before."
The football team was so kind and gentle that it was fighting for last place in the league with Damien. Student reporter Choi maintained that Kalani is still kind and gentle.
"There are hardly any fights here," he said. "The bullies aren't really bullies. You get to know them and they're really nice."
Getting back to the ring, Lanias said it cost him about $30 compared to the $200 he paid for his daughter's class ring three years ago. Choi said class rings today run between $200 and $1,000.
Lanias said he wore his ring after graduation in 1967 but left it at home when he went to Vietnam with the U.S. Army. Back home, he wore it again.
He said he went bowling and remembers putting the ring on the scoring table. He realized it was missing only after he left the bowling alley. Lanias went back for his ring and couldn't find it. Then, what with getting married and raising a family, he forgot about the ring.
Fast-forward almost 30 years. School secretary Irene Yamamoto answered the telephone. A man in Wahiawa said he wanted to bring in a ring. He arrived at the school with a strange story about working at the Classic Bowl when it closed in 1991.
Employees were permitted to take home bowling balls. He put his in the garage. Recently, he cleaned his garage. When he was moving the bowling balls, a class ring fell out of a thumbhole. He brought the ring to the school office but refused to give his name.
On the inside of the ring were the initials C.L. and and the year 1967. School clerk Deena Yamada checked and only one graduate, Clifford Lanias, had those initials in 1967.
Several phone calls later, Yamamoto got hold of Mrs. Lanias, who called her husband, who said he'd drive over from Mililani. When he was half an hour early for the appointment, principal Randi Porras-Tang asked, "Where you always so prompt for class?" He joked, "No, I was afraid you'd revoke my diploma."
Correction: Cliff Lanias got his lost class ring back after 31 years. His name was spelled incorrectly in some references in a previous version of this story.
