Aug. 13, 1999 VMI ring comes full circle The director of the summer camp where the ring was found is trying to track down the owner's surviving relatives. Eleven-year-old Alex Butler was struck by the improbability of locating one of Eastham's children. Toni Eastham Jolly is about to retrieve a little piece of her past that she didn't know existed. By MATT CHITTUM THE ROANOKE TIMES The Salem woman is the daughter of the 1912 Virginia Military Institute graduate who apparently lost his class ring in the Greenbrier River in West Virginia, to be found decades later by a Roanoke boy with ties to VMI. Jolly read a story in Thursday's Roanoke Times about Alex Butler, 11, who found the ring while snorkeling at Camp Greenbrier two weeks ago. Etched in the ring was her father's name, Robert Lawson Eastham. Jolly, a 77-year-old retired Roanoke County school librarian, called the newspaper and is now in touch with the Butler family. They plan to meet, possibly this weekend, so Alex can hand the ring over to Jolly. "I never remember the ring, so I feel like it was lost before I was born," Jolly said. Alex was struck by the improbability of locating one of Eastham's children, much less right in the Roanoke Valley. "It's kind of weird," he said. "I'm happy that I can give her the ring." "I'm so excited," Jolly said. She plans to frame the ring and hang it on her wall. "I'm a hoarder, and I frame a lot of things." She knew little of her father's past, she said. "When you're interested, there's nobody left to ask." Eastham, a Harrisonburg native, died in Roanoke in 1942 from heart trouble, Jolly said. Jolly said her father had been a history teacher and a civil engineer for either the state or federal highway department. "He was really proud of his VMI days," she said. Eastham has a few things in common with the boy that found his ring. Both have VMI people in their family. Alex comes from a family full of VMI men. His paternal grandfather, Bob Patterson, is a 1938 graduate and former VMI commandant . His mother's family, the Moncures, have sent more than a dozen men to VMI since the 1850s. Eastham's twin brother also went to VMI, Jolly said. Alex has no intention of attending VMI, but neither did Eastham, according to Jolly. Aug. 12, 1999 VMI family finds ring from Class of 1912 The director of the summer camp where the ring was found is trying to track down the owner's surviving relatives. By MATT CHITTUM THE ROANOKE TIMES Who better than Alex Butler to retrieve the lost ring of a long-dead Virginia Military Institute graduate from the rocky bed of the Greenbrier River? There he was at camp in Greenbrier County, W.Va., two weeks ago, snorkel and mask in place, face dunked into the river. "I just saw something shiny in the water," Alex said Wednesday. He snatched it and rose from the light rapids to discover he'd found a worn but clearly recognizable 1912 VMI class ring. Recognizable to Alex because the 11-year-old has VMI in his veins. Alex's grandfather Bob Butler, a 1938 VMI graduate, served as commandant at his alma mater for two years in the late 1950s. His mother's family, the Moncures, has sent more than a dozen men to VMI, beginning in the 1850s. Alex has a provisional appointment to VMI, meaning that if he qualifies when he's old enough, space will be made for him if he wants it. Finding the ring, "is like drawing to an inside straight," Bob Butler said. "It doesn't happen often enough." Butler still wears his VMI ring every day, except when he's gardening. But plenty of VMI grads have lost their prized rings, only to have them turn up in unusual places. The three sons of Gil and Douglas Butler and the other kids who attend Camp Greenbrier each summer are used to finding stuff in the river. But it's typically golf balls and cans, said Billy Butler, 14. "Usually, it's something we lost last year," said camp director Bob Hood. "Never anything like this. Nothing that could be identified." Alex's find had the whole camp talking, giving him a little fame, and sending Hood on a mission to find out to whom it belonged, and how it may have ended up in the river. "We don't know if this ring's been in the water a month or 50 years," Hood said. "It just struck us as a mystery, something to look into." The owner of the ring, whose name is engraved inside it, was Robert Lawson Eastham of Harrisonburg. His nickname at VMI was "Red," derived apparently from what his yearbook describes as "the peculiar shade of his hair." Eastham played football for three years at VMI, though judging by the remarkably small size of his ring, he was slight in stature. He also had a deep interest in the military, his yearbook indicates. But despite several attempts to enlist, Eastham was never allowed to serve, other records in the VMI archives show. At the outbreak of World War I, Eastham was admitted to an officers training camp at Fort Myers but later was discharged "on account of a physical examination," he wrote in a letter on file at VMI. He tried to get in at least two more times, but was refused for the same reason. He subsequently served as a high school history and English teacher in Elkton and as commandant of the now-defunct Gulf Coast Military Academy in Gulfport, Miss., VMI records show. He lived in Roanoke at some point, an obituary on file at VMI shows. Eastham died in May 1942 at age 53, while he was living in Marion. Subsequent letters sent to his widow by VMI, however, were mailed to an address on Albemarle Avenue Southwest in Roanoke. Camp director Hood said one of Eastham's children, a daughter named Antoinette, could still be alive. She would be in her mid-70s, Hood speculated. "One way or another, we're going to find someone in his family," Hood said. Alex would like to see the ring given to someone to whom it has real meaning. "If they find that lady, give it to her," he said. "But if they don't find it, give it back to VMI." Alex's mother, Douglas, said she is thrilled that Alex wants to see the ring returned. Alex has no desire to keep it. In fact, he has no desire to earn one of his own. Provisional appointment or not, Alex wants no part of the shouting and calisthenics and general misery of life at VMI. At VMI, "You can't do much," he said. "I might change my mind, but right now, it doesn't look good."