C O M M U N I T Y
The Wallet in the Attic M A R Y
W A R N E R
’ 2 1
▲ Gib Shea ’22 and Teddy Rupenstein ’22, returing the wallet that went missing when Gary Getman ’55 was a student.
50 / T H E P U LT EN EY STRE E T SURVE Y
During the monotony of lockdown, four roommates in Medbery Hall discovered a wallet lost more than 60 years earlier — and set out to find its owner. “The whole thing really started from boredom,” says Gib Shea ’22. In February, amid a new surge of COVID-19 cases, Shea and his three roommates were spending most of their time in Medbery Hall. There was only so much coursework and sleep to accomplish in a day. The attics above were waiting to be explored. “We found some old ski team memorabilia and we started to move some stuff around. I lifted up an old bottle and found a wallet that wasn’t water- or animaldamaged, and I was just amazed,” Shea says. Sorting through the ancient leather wallet, they found fraternity dues, ticket stubs and photographs, all “in remarkable condition.” The wallet also included the driver’s license of Gary Getman ’55. Then and there, the Hobart students decided to do whatever they could to return the wallet. Consulting with the Office of Alumni and Alumnae Relations, they tracked down Getman’s contact information and wrote to him about their find. “It was kind of a shock,” says Getman. After so many years, the wallet was almost beyond memory. Getman, who played on the Hobart baseball team, recalls that he last saw it in the locker room downstairs in Williams Hall but “completely forgot about it till I heard from the boys.” In his reply, Getman invited them to his Long Island home for lunch. It took a few months of planning, but early this summer Shea and Teddy Ruppenstein ’22 made the drive to return the wallet.
The wallet included Getman’s driver’s license, Air Force vaccine certificate, Kappa Sigma fraternity dues sheet, and photos picturing his twin cousins, as well as his girlfriend at the time, the late Ellen Willauer Decker ’55.
“When we got to his house, Gary and his family were all there,” Ruppenstein says, “and we went through the contents of the wallet and each item brought up a story. The first standout was his and his girlfriend’s gym cards, as well as his ROTC vaccination card, which we all found to be very ironic.” The visit revealed more than a few parallels across the generations at HWS. Ruppenstein by chance had lived in the same room that Getman occupied in Hale Hall decades earlier. As Getman recalled his
W I N TER 2 0 2 2
PHOTOS BY LAURA GET MAN
B Y
