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Springfield, Ohio — The events that led to The Return of the Ring began not in Rivendell, the Shire or the mountains of Mordor.

They began in the misty past when Dr. Gus Mancy was just getting started in his now well established pediatrics career.

The ring itself was a thing of beauty — a gift from his sister to celebrate Mancy's 1968 graduation from Ohio State University Medical School.

"She had enough money to buy a $150 ring," said Mancy, who at age 25 did not.

Because her husband doctor had encouraged Mancy to enter medicine, the ring with the red stone with gold leaf caduceus meant even more.

Made of solid gold so the soap and water it would be exposed to in a physician's career wouldn't harm it, it was perfect.

Inscribed on the inside surface in rune-like writing was the name of its owner, Emmanuel G. Mancy.

Mancy wore the ring to another hallowed event, the Rose Bowl of 1969, in which the Buckeyes led by Rex Kern beat O.J. Simpson and the USC Trojans 21-14 to win the national title.

Mancy was in Los Angeles at the time, serving his residency at Los Angeles General Hospital.

There, Mancy and the ring parted company.

A loss of innocence

"I put it in my intern smock," Mancy recalled.

Forgetting it was there, "I threw my stuff down in the laundry, and I immediately knew my ring was gone."

When the man with the hobbit-like innocence of a good grandson of Greek immigrants called down to the laundry, he encountered the evil that can be found outside of his native Toledo and the Shire.

"I got this call back," he said. "This guy found the ring, but I was going to have to pay to get it back, or they (said they) were going to melt it down for the gold."

"It was kind of a shock to me," Mancy said, "so I went to security and the security guy was in on it."

Told it would cost him $20 to get it back on his finger, "I was just kind of indignant," Mancy said.

Today, he admitted, he might do something else.

But then, he told himself, "I guess he needs it more than I do.

"So that was the last thing," Mancy said. "I thought for sure it was melted down for gold. I never imagined it wasn't."

And that might have been that, but for the curiosity of Rick McBurney, a material handler in the General Motors Plant in Lordstown, Ohio.

The pawn shop

About a dozen years ago, "I was in Pasadena, Calif., in a pawn shop," McBurney, 55, said from his Salem, Ohio, home.

He'd gone into the shop with a cousin who was looking for some computer deals.

"I grew up in California, but I've lived in Ohio since I was 18," he said.

So when he spotted the ring, he plunked down $10 or $20 and did something he'd never done before: make a purchase in a pawn shop.

Only later did he notice the inscription.

When he did, the man who said he "for some reason" has found half a dozen or so wallets — returning them all — tried to find Mancy.

He tried making contact through Ohio State, did some searching on AOL and checked the Yellow Pages.

"Nothing came up," he said, "so I just kind of gave up on it and left it in my desk."

And that was that until last month, when McBurney overheard a conversation about how someone found someone else by Googling the name.

McBurney remembered the ring and decided to give the search another try. He found Mancy's name listed with Springfield's Pediatrics Associates and picked up the phone.

The hero's helper

"It was weird, because I don't usually work at night," said receptionist Ashley Howard.

But she was there to field the call from a man looking for Emmanuel G. Mancy and told his story.

"I was excited. I was telling everybody about it. I called Dr. Mancy about 50 times that night, but he wouldn't answer the phone. I was dying to tell him."

When Mancy arrived at work, the staff was so excited, "they acted like he was going to give me his kidney," Mancy said.

Howard gave Mancy the phone number, but "because I know how scatterbrained (he) is, I kept it."

That meant she had it after Mancy misplaced it the first time. Well, every hero needs a helper.

Mancy said the gold ring "is probably worth $1,000."

But to him, its return is "more of a spiritual thing."

"I let it go, and it came back to me," he said.

"It isn't all finders keepers, losers weepers."

The ring is snug enough that it sometimes requires soap or lotion to get it off, Mancy said. But it's in mint condition.

"I'm proud of it. I'm going to wear it the rest of my life," he said. And the fact that the ring he lost at the beginning of his career has reappeared near the end completes the circle for him.

Home cooking

For his part, McBurney doesn't want a reward.

"I knew I was doing a good deed. I just wanted to hear the story," he said.

Now that he has, he's satisfied.

But Mancy is going to try to get him something anyway, perhaps a steak dinner or two at the Mancy restaurants in Toledo, run by the doctor's older brothers.

McBurney became a fan of the restaurants when his son was getting a doctorate of pharmacy from the University of Toledo.

"When I was up there a few years ago, it was the best place to eat," he said.

It could be the restaurant started by simple, hard-working Greek immigrants may be the perfect place to celebrate the time-honored honesty involved in The Return of the Ring.

Contact this reporter at (937) 328-0368 or tstafford@coxohio.com.

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