The design reflected the eagle motif carved in limestone as a detail on the original 1940 building, adopted by the student body as the mascot of the school - the "Adams Eagles."
We discovered in late April 1996 that the company still exists and we explored whether there may be a way to order rings in the old style. The news we received was that Terryberry now exclusively pursues the presentation awards business and they are out of the class ring business. They reported that their records show the tooling was transferred to Jostens, another well-respected name in the school ring business and, we believe, the current supplier of class rings at Adams. The current JAHS ring is a "college style" one with jewel.
We contacted Jostens to inquire into the availability of replacement rings in our original design from Adams-owned tooling. They reported that they have destroyed our tooling!
Until early 2003 we thought that was all we could do. However, thanks to Michael S. Bell (JAHS '64), an artist who has worked in museums and as an art curator who is quite familiar with this process, we were informed of a way to duplicate the old rings and make them again. Apparently, a pristine sample ring is used to make a mold, and new rings can be made including changing the sides to show the appropriate year. It is not cheap, but much less costly than you might imagine for a custom-produced gold ring.
Unfortunately, there was not enough demand and the original "new" supplier decided not to continue with the program.
ADDED INFO January 2012: Michael now has a new contact in China that uses high tech equipment and computer graphics to make facsimile rings one by one. For more information you can contact Michael S. Bell at bluehawkzoomie@yahoo.com. Thanks so much, Michael, for keeping this alive.
Click here to see a large size version of the original 1944 design illustration (it's a larger file but well worth the short wait - we had a GREAT and unique design!).