Missing 1956 Gardner class ring brings two families together

GARDNER — Robyn (Berry) Parmenter of Orange couldn’t remember the last time she saw her late father Richard Berry wearing his 1956 Gardner High School class ring.

Susan Hermanson couldn’t remember exactly how the lost class ring had been in her elderly mom Geraldine (Jerry) Richard’s possession.

However, this past Wednesday the ring was returned to Robyn, a keepsake which at long last found its way back to the Berry family.

When first contacted that it was possible that her dad’s ring was found, Robyn began to wonder how the ring came into the possession of Mrs. Richard in the first place.

“At first, I thought it was a girlfriend-boyfriend story and she kept the ring, which would have been a great story,” she said, her imagination running amuck. “Possibly a love affair and she kept the ring because he broke up with her,” she said.

Yet, since Mrs. Richard is now 95 years of age and Richard Berry, had he been alive, would be 81 there was little chance of a love connection.

However, when Mrs. Hermanson showed up with the ring, she had little to go on.

“I wish I had a story for you. We really don’t know how my mother came upon the ring,” Sue Hermanson said. “We just couldn’t make any connection at all.”

Joining Robyn for the ring reunion were her son Kyle Weatherby and granddaughter Ciara Weatherby of Royalston, and her daughter Jayme Parmenter, also of Orange.

The gold ring with a black onyx setting in the middle bore the legend that it was from the Gardner High Class of 1956 – 63 years ago – and the initials inside the band of the ring were R.W.B.

Initially, Sue’s husband Mike Hermanson decided to consult the 1956 Gardner High Argus yearbook at the Levi Heywood Memorial Library’s Local History Room for any graduate with those initials.

As it turned out, there were five students with the ‘R.B.” initials listed in that yearbook: Richard D. Barry, Rachel B. Boudreau, Robert L. Brousseau, Richard A. Burnyshafski and Richard Berry (with no middle initial next to his name).

However, after further research, it was found that Richard Berry’s middle initial was “W.”

“His middle name was Whittier and I don’t think he liked it very much, so I guess that’s why he didn’t have it listed in the yearbook,” his daughter Robyn reasoned.

After much detective work, Google searches, phone calls and more dead ends than connections, Robyn was finally contacted. Though skeptical at first, she came to The Gardner News building with her family where the exchange could be made.

Once the Hermansons procured the ring, it immediately struck a chord with Robyn’s son Kyle, now 36, who recalled seeing his grandfather wear the ring.

“I remember seeing that ring when I was a kid,” said Kyle. “I remembered a class ring with a symbol in the middle of it. I know I’ve seen it before, but I would have been about five or six.”

However, that still didn’t solve the mystery of how Mrs. Richard wound up with the ring in her possession.

During the meeting between the Parmenter family and the Hermansons, both sides began to dig a little deeper.

The Berry family moved to Templeton in the mid-1960s and the family lived on Dudley Road.

Robyn noted that her dad had held a number of jobs in Gardner, first working for Heywood Wakefield and later GEM Crib and Cradle.

No connection there, as Sue’s late dad, Edmond Richard, worked as a custodian for the Gardner School Department and her mom was a teacher’s aide in the kindergarten.

However, Berry’s next job was as manager of the first Cumberland Farms when it was located on City Hall Avenue.

Immediately, the light bulb went on for the Hermansons.

“(Sue’s) father was a big walker, he walked everywhere,” said Mike. “We’re wondering if he didn’t find it on one of his walks and just threw it in a box. I’m sure he wasn’t thinking about checking out the initials and tracking the ring down.”

And where did Edmond and Gerry Richard live?

Right around the corner from the City Hall Ave. Cumberland Farms at 35 Nichols St.

Robyn also noted that her parents owned an apartment on Regan Street, and the ring could have been lost while they were in the process of rehabbing one of the apartment houses there, and Edmond Richard may have found it on one of his walks.

Regardless, the ring got back into the hands of Robyn Parmenter and the Berry family just in time for a melancholy anniversary.

Richard Berry died 16 years ago, on December 13, 2003, at the age of 65.

“I’m just so happy we could reconnect you with the ring,” said Sue Hermanson to Robyn, solving a local mystery with a nice ring to it.