Decades after losing his K-State fraternity ring in the Alps, lawyer gets a surprise

In early June 1993, Chris Steincamp and Roger McClellan celebrated the end of law school with a trip to Europe.

McClellan’s brother-in-law at the time, Josef “Sepp” Fuchs, had a cabin west of Salzburg that mountain climbers used as a base camp. It was so high up, supplies had to be helicoptered in.

Fuchs invited them to visit.

“We weren’t exactly well equipped for mountain climbing in the Alps,” Steincamp said.

Their attire consisted of tennis shoes, regular clothing and no gloves.

One day, the two were crossing a snow-packed field near a peak, and Steincamp fell through a hole, catching himself as he was up to his underarms in snow.

“It was a deep hole,” he said.

He was able to climb out, but not before first losing his Phi Delta Theta ring from Kansas State University. Though the ring was important to him — his father was a member of the fraternity at KSU and his son eventually was, too — it was sort of incidental at that moment.

“Honestly, at the moment it happened, I was just glad I didn’t fall further down into the snow,” Steincamp said. “It’s gone. What are you going to do?”

They did spend a considerable amount of time looking for the ring.

“When he went tumbling down the mountain . . . I was spending way too much time out there looking for his stupid fraternity ring, digging around,” McClellan said, laughing.

Eventually, he said he and Fuchs realized Steincamp had stopped searching.

“OK, finally we can quit,” McClellan said.

Steincamp told Fuchs, “Hey, if somebody ever finds that ring, let me know. I’d love to get it back.”

He said he mentioned it “not seriously even,” thinking it would be impossible.

Then last summer, one of Steincamp’s partners at Depew Gillen Rathbun & McInteer returned from a meeting where McClellan, who is president of Wildcat Construction Co., asked him to mention to Steincamp that Fuchs had found the ring.

“And I said, ‘Oh, yeah, right. Sure he did,’ ” Steincamp said.

The next day, he ran into McClellan, who showed him photographic proof.

“Holy cow, it really is my ring,” Steincamp said.

“I mean, honestly, who would believe that story?”

Someone had found the ring and given it to Fuchs, who contacted McClellan through social media.

Steincamp had some communication issues and couldn’t reach Fuchs through e-mail, so he had McClellan do it through social media.

“It was kind of like a three-legged stool to talk to him,” Steincamp said.

The next issue was shipping. There was a concern that the gold ring could get hung up in customs indefinitely.

Steincamp approached Yardstore president Ryan Bendell.

“He’s always so generous with his time and efforts,” Steincamp said.

Bendell and a Yardstore employee created shipping labels and arranged for UPS to go to Fuchs’ house in Salzburg to retrieve the ring, put it in a box and ship it to Wichita.

“So 29 years later, I got my ring back yesterday,” Steincamp said on Tuesday.

“It’s almost unbelievable, truthfully,” he said.

“I honestly felt like it was gone forever.”

People are now telling him it must be a lucky ring and that he should try to hang onto it this time.

“It’s a crazy story,” McClellan said.

Steincamp’s son, Sam, had the best line, though.

“My son’s comment was, ‘You know, it makes that whole “Lord of the Rings” thing more possible than you might think.’ ”

This story was originally published July 12, 2022 at 12:38 PM.