Ring Melt for USMA 2020 - Our 50 Year Affiliate Class

Gil Harper gil.harper70@googlemail.com SENDS:

LTC (Ret) Ron Turner, USMA’58, proposed the Ring Melt. In his words, "West Point invented the concept of the class ring in 1835, and we, her graduates, have all experienced the thrill of finally earning the right to wear our own West Point class ring with pride ever since …the symbol of membership in the Long Gray Line. Perhaps we would have been even prouder had our new class rings included traces of the gold from rings of past graduates — some of whom served many years before”

The ring melt allows graduates or graduate’s families to bequeath the West Point Class Rings for the specific purpose of incorporating the gold into the class ring of future graduates so that future graduates will wear rings containing gold worn by other West Pointers, some of whom have joined the “ghostly assemblage.” 

The Class of 2020 Ring Melt will be held in January 2019 at West Point. Thirty-eight rings have already been donated for this year’s Melt, including six from our class – two from classmates who are still with us and four from those who have gone before. 

To be included in the Class of 2020 Ring Melt, rings (with stones removed) must be provided to the AOG with a memorial statement for a deceased classmate and a biography for a living donor not later than 1 November 2018. Additional information is available at https://www.westpointaog.org/RingMemorialProgram. 

I attended a Ring Melt Ceremony when we donated my father’s ring. It is a moving and memorable experience.

SWI,
Gil Harper gil.harper70@googlemail.com