Featured Testimonial About Creighton University
His 1968 Creighton class ring disappeared, and Gene Pieper still, to this day, cannot say how. Or where. Or when, exactly.
The prevailing theory: It inadvertently popped out of Pieper’s pocket while he sat on his mom’s couch in Albion, a town of about 1,600 people in central Nebraska.
That was in 1969, maybe? Or 1970, or 1971?
Regardless, once the undergraduate ring was gone, Pieper, BSBA’69, JD’71, did not think about it much. He graduated from Creighton’s law school (his parents actually bought him a new class ring), he started practicing, he eventually launched an international business.
Decades passed. He retired in Elkhorn, Neb. Then one day last year, Pieper got a call.
“Do you want your class ring back?”
* * *
Sometime in 2021, Greg Nathan’s wife added a mystery Creighton ring to her jewelry box and told her husband that he should play detective and attempt to trace its roots.
What was its story?
It was clearly a Creighton class ring from 1968. It was made of white gold, with a blue gem as its centerpiece. The grad year and the initials “ELP” were etched into the metal.
Nathan learned that his mother-in-law found the ring years earlier at her home in Fullerton (a town about 25 miles south of Albion). She heard something rattling around when she moved her couch, pulled off all the cushions and carved her way inside to find the ring. She placed it in her jewelry box and forgot about it for a couple decades. When her husband passed away, she cleaned out the house and gave the ring to her daughter.
The Nathans then forgot about it, too, until last year. Nathan’s wife was fully invested in a spring-cleaning operation inside their Lincoln home when she noticed the ring again.
Nathan isn’t a Creighton grad, but he figured the ring could be valuable to someone. He decided that he would call the alumni office to see if anyone could help track down the ring’s owner or the owner’s family members.
- Problem 1: Pieper was supposed to get his degree in 1968 and join the Marine Corps, but the draft board arranged for him to take an extra semester. So, he technically finished his undergrad degree in 1969 (although his ring says 1968).
- Problem 2: Pieper’s first name is logged in Creighton’s alumni records as “Gene,” instead of his full, given name “Eugene.” Initial searches for the initials “ELP” were fruitless.
Needless to say, it took a couple weeks — and some Gandalf-worthy detective work from our alumni relations staff and University Archives — to piece together the mystery.
But eventually Nathan had a name, a phone number and a surprise to share. He called Pieper up.
* * *
In reality, Pieper has no idea how his Creighton class ring ended up in the depths of an old couch and sat there for decades. It’s kind of fun for him to imagine a scenario worthy of a movie script. It could involve a hometown party getting a little out of hand but ending with him meeting a beautiful lady, or maybe even having one of those just-wait-until-you-see-the-other-guy confrontations.
Pieper jokes now that his long-lost class ring has given him mystical powers — that he’s a real-life J.R.R Tolkien-style hero. Maybe his ring could help the Bluejays earn a couple extra wins on the court???
But honestly, when Nathan called him last year, Pieper was mostly just confused.
(Again, Pieper had forgotten about his undergrad class ring. He had thought for years that his only Creighton ring was the one he received after finishing law school.)
“Gene was like, ‘what are you talking about? I have my ring,’” Nathan said. “But we kept talking and then it suddenly clicked in his mind. “That’s my ring!’”
Pieper remembers that his mom swapped couches kind of regularly back in the day. If she didn’t like the sofa after a couple weeks, she would try a new one. So, the couch that Nathan’s mother-in-law purchased from a used furniture store in Fullerton could have sat in the Pieper family living room for a few days.
And the ring somehow, maybe, got lost inside?
Who knows?
That was 55 years ago. Give or take.
The Nathans eventually traveled to meet Pieper at his Elkhorn home last year. They returned the ring to him and chatted for a couple hours about everything, sharing some laughs and memories.
If anything, that was the ring’s biggest gift. A good story, a new link between two families and a chance for Pieper to revisit some of his favorite Creighton memories from long ago.
“I am glad to have the ring back,” Pieper said. “You think about everything that’s happened since, over the 50 years in my life and the Nathans family’s lives. It’s incredible that the ring ended up back here with me. It’s a nice keepsake.”
