By BEVERLY BRYANT

News Staff Writer

A lost ring at a Colorado dog park has brought two Ponca City High School graduates together in a tale that shows how small the world can be.

Last Thursday Kevin Loving from the class of 1970 and his wife Beth, also a 1970 graduate, were walking their two dogs at Glendale Farm Open Space, a 17-acre off-leash dog park about 15 minutes south of Denver near Castle Rock, Colo.

Loving said the park is fenced in, so there is a common entryway and exit with a small holding area to bring the dogs in or out.

"As I was leaving on Thursday afternoon, I noticed on one of the fence posts and fence there were several items that people had found on the trails and placed there hoping the owners would eventually find them — a glove, a couple of dog collars. A ring was sitting on top the fence post and it caught my eye," he wrote in an e-mail. "When I looked at it closer, I was amazed it said Ponca City High School! When I saw the Pioneer Woman Statue in the stone, I knew there was no doubt."

The ring was from the class of 1965 and inside were the initials RCJ.

At that point, Loving's search for the owner was on. He posted the story on his Facebook page and got more than 40 responses from friends with suggestions about how to find the owner.

"I followed some leads and I found the ring's owner," he said. "I had left a phone message for a Richard Clay Jones I had found in the Castle Rock phone book and he returned my call this morning and confirmed the ring was his.

"I had gone to the Online Po-Hi Alumni Web site, pulled up Class of '65 and fortunately he was registered on there with his full name, matching the initials RCJ," Loving said. "His contact information was outdated, but he mentioned in the notes that his daughter lived in Colorado, so I thought it might be him."

Sure enough, Loving said, Jones moved to Castle Rock, Colo. a couple of years ago from Las Cruces, N.M.

"I ran into several dead ends trying to track him down, but finally got his number through information in Castle Rock," Loving said. "I spoke to him for several minutes and he said he had given up on finding the ring. He takes his Doberman to the dog park every day and figured he must have lost it while taking off his gloves. He was pretty amazed that a Po-Hi grad would actually be the person who found it."

It turns out Loving and Jones live about 10 minutes apart and take their dogs to the same park. The men met Monday at the dog park so Loving could return the ring to Jones.

"We met for coffee and ended up spending several hours getting to know each other, figuring out people we mutually knew, talking about Ponca and where life has taken us since those high school days," Loving said. "He was very grateful to get his ring back and that I had tracked him down. We're going to start meeting at the Dog Park and let our dogs run together as well."

Jones also e-mailed his side of the story.

"Not too long ago, I noticed my high school class ring laying in my jewelry box and thought I might take it to be resized for my ring finger," he said. "It loosely fit on my pinky so I wore it there until I could go to Zale's. I bought the ring at Zale's there in Ponca City in 1965.

"They have some very nice dog parks around here and I try to take my dog to one just about every day," Jones said.

"Lately it has been cold so I have been wearing gloves to the park and while playing with leashes and gates I must have pulled off my glove and the ring came with it and fell out of the glove.

"That night I noticed that it was missing and knew that I would probably never find it again," he said.

When he was surprised by Loving's call, they found that their paths had crossed in multiple ways over the years.

"It turns out that we have some mutual friends that we knew growing up and his mother and my father both worked at the Security Bank and probably knew each other," Jones said.

Loving's mother, Rosemary Loving Davey, also grew up in Ponca City. Jones' father Clay Jones worked at Security Bank for 47 years, he said.

Loving graduated in 1970 and had attended Lincoln Elementary School and West Junior High School.

His brother Colin also graduated in 1970, as did his wife Beth (Thomas) Loving.

"I also have three sisters, Cassi, Candy and Cari, who graduated from Po-Hi," Loving said. "My wife and I moved to Colorado in 1972 and have been here since. We still have some family and friends in Ponca City and get back to visit pretty much yearly.

Jones said he graduated on June 3, 1965, and on June 6 five members of the Class of 1965 headed off to join the Air Force.

"I stayed a full 20 years and retired as a Master Sergeant in August 1985," he said. "After training in Texas, I went to Patrick Air Force Base, Florida. That was an exciting time there as they were preparing to sent a man to the moon and I got to observe some of the launches in preparing for that."

From there he went to Cam Rahn Bay AB, Vietnam, and after Vietnam he went to Torrejon AB, Spain.

"I loved Spain and managed to stay there for five years. From there I went to Minot AFB in North Dakota and then to NKP Thailand. I closed that base in Thailand in November 1974 and went to Mac Dill AFB, Florida.

"From there I went to Fort Belvoir, Va., for training as a geodetic surveyor and after training I went to FE Warren AFB, Wyoming. While in Wyoming I had to travel to Texas and New Mexico several times for jobs there and I really liked New Mexico, so when an opening became available I took it. This finished my Air Force career," Jones said.

After retiring from the Air Force, Jones attended New Mexico State University and worked as a student at the Physical Sciences Laboratory.

"After school, I went to work for Unisys at White Sands Missile Range as a computer-aided draftsman at the High Energy Laser Systems Test Facility," he said. "My then-married daughter settled in Parker, Colo. and now has two sons. I was able to retire early and wanted to be near my daughter and two grandsons so I quit my job at White Sands, sold my house in Las Cruces, N.M., and moved to Castle Rock, Colo.

He said while he was driving from Wyoming to Texas and New Mexico, he drove past Glendale Farm Open Space many times.

"I always thought it would be neat to live here. Now I only live a half a block from the Park and Castle Rock," he said.

While Jones was growing up in Ponca City, he had a paper route on South Ninth Street from Central Avenue to South Avenue for a year and a half, about 1960, and then another one on East Grand Avenue, Thirteenth Street from Grand to Highland and Fourteenth Street from Grand to Hazel in about 1963.