He received the ring from his uncle because his father, Jack Shugar, had recently passed away from heart disease.
That ring went with him everywhere until he was 20 years old. That's when he was vacationing with friends at a beach in North Carolina.
"I wore the ring around my neck on a chain, went to the beach, took it off to go swimming, came back and we couldn't find it," Jason said.
A year later a woman from New Hampshire, Paula Groleau, was vacationing on that same beach and found the ring. Paula says she had every intention of trying to find the owner, but said she simply went home to New Hampshire, put it on a shelf, and forgot about it.
That was 1990 - 20 years ago.
A few months ago Paula found it again, still on that shelf. Realizing it was a Reading High School ring, she contacted the Reading Eagle Newspaper and put out an ad.
Reporters from the news department liked the story so much they got involved. After linking the inscription - JLS - to Jack Shugar, they found his son, Jason, lived in the Reading Suburb of Robeson.
A few days later the ring arrived in the mail.
"It was amazing. I had a difficult time holding back tears and, ultimately, I couldn't," Jason said.
"I feel guilty that I didn't do it years earlier," Paula Groleau said. "But it's great to be part of a wonderful ending to a sad story."
Meantime, Jason says, he now has a whole new connection to his dad.
"It's been quite some time since I've had any contact with my dad at all," Jason said. "But this has increased that connection."
