Bob Carnahan  ’53 Met. Engineering is looking for someone who may have a Michigan Tech Balfour class ring. Here’s more information about the ring and Bob’s inquiry about an available ring. If anyone has information, email techalum@mtu.edu -SW

I’m sure I’ve written about this in Alumni letters once or twice and discussed it an interview published in The Lode about 7 or 8 years ago. It has my photo with a spread winged Jay sitting on my cap while cross country skiing near Mt. Hood, OR.

The Balfour ring in the photo was first available for the class of 1953 before the name change to MTU in the late 1960s. Having arrived at Tech in Sept. 1949 and elected to the Student Council for the next two years I launched a campaign to source a new class ring design. 3 candidates submitted new ring designs with Balfour the unanimous winner of a balloted election contest.  =Terryberry, a disgruntled loser, brought a lawsuit for breach of contract naming myself and the College. The contract had been renewed every 5 years by the SC President, usually a graduating senior, obliging the next 5 classes to buy a non-representative poorly designed and executed ring. Fortunately my correspondence with the vendors and background files satisfied the Administration and Board of Control that the contract was unbinding, so the suit was dropped.

I misplaced my ring years ago and have failed to be able to replace it as Balfour doesn’t archive its earlier designs even classics. My hope remains to find an artisan who can duplicate the original. My ring size is a snug 12 if there’s anyone willing to part with one??

The Balfour ring symbolizes the founding date of the Michigan Mining School 1885, the original classrooms Hubbell Hall building, and the crest for the Michigan College of Mining and Technology.  The 1953 Yearbook bears a beautifully embossed image of the crest complete with a Husky.

Bob Carnahan  ’53 Met. Engineering

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Houghton to Copper Harbor on K-Day – through the tunnel of brilliant red, orange and yellow trees on 41 between the Lac LaBelle cutoff and Copper Harbor. MAGIC ribbon of road! I still get shivers thinking about it after 50 years.

Eric Schulte ’70