(UPI) A Kentucky man who lost his class ring nearly 40 years ago was reunited with the object thanks to the daughter of a man who found it decades ago.

Officials at Bullitt Central High School in Shepherdsville said they recently received a phone call from a woman who said she was trying to find the owner of a 1971 class ring from the school.

The woman told officials the ring had been found by her father, who had a hobby of hunting with a metal detector before his death in 1996.

"Over the years, he'd found a number of objects, some with value, some without," Jason Wells, the Bullitt Central High School athletic director, told WAVE-TV. A fair number had value he could turn into some extra cash. Over the years he would hold on to certain items and one of those items stood out.

The woman mailed the ring to the school and officials said they were able to make out the faded initials "CDM" on the inside of the band.

Officials determined the ring belonged to Curtis Mullins, a member of the school's first-ever graduating class in 1971.

Mullins' niece works at the school, and she was able to help officials lure her uncle to a ceremony in which he was surprised with the ring. A video of the ceremony was posted to the school's Facebook page.

"My long lost class ring that I haven't seen since the 1980s," Mullins said. Not sure what happened to the ring, it just felt like I lost it or it got shuffled in a move. You know, moving around from house to house and whatever.

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