Triumphant squeals bubbled out of the child's snorkel as he paddled to the sea's surface with his unexpected treasure.

Alex Kekalainen had combed the beach on Santorini island and searched for stones and shells on the ocean's floor. His father brought him on a late-summer vacation to the Greek island to celebrate his 10th birthday. Antti Kekalainen told his son to stay within his sight. But Alex tested his father -- like boys do when they are lured by adventure -- and he gradually found himself closer to the boats than the shore.

When Alex plunged under the water, his eyes met with a sparkling stone. He swam closer to the bottom. Then, he unearthed the clunky gold ring nestled in a bed of dull volcanic rocks.

Alex rushed back to the beach yelling: "Dad, look what I found!"

Engraved on the inside of the ring were clues: "University of Colorado." "Journalism." "1990." "Peter Baumgartner."

Kekalainen told his son that when they returned home to Finland they would try to track down the owner through the Internet. The ring, they agreed, looked valuable since somebody inscribed it with a name.

***

The message that popped up in Paul Voakes' e-mail on a September afternoon looked like spam, but it was Kekalainen's best attempt at written English.

Subject line: "searching mr. Peter Baumgartner"

Voakes, dean of CU's School of Journalism and Mass Communication, opened the e-mail.

"My name is Antti Kekalainen and I am sendin this email from Finland. I am trying to find mr. Peter Baumgartner in a internet but couldnt find him. I hope that you can help me a bit. He is propobly been a student there in a journalism and graduated year 1990. I just found something that belongs to him, so I am trying to find and contact him. If you please could answer to me what ever you find out, so I can keep loking for him."

Voakes forwarded the e-mail to his colleague, Beth Gaeddert, who keeps a database of the school's alumni. Peter Baumgartner indeed was an alumnus, but there was no current contact information attached to his name.

***

Peter Baumgartner seldom took off his class ring since he bought it just before his May 1990 graduation.

When he was a sophomore he volunteered in CU's football recruiting department and watched coach Bill McCartney's winning team play in Folsom Field. He served as sports editor of the student publication, the Campus Press, in 1990 -- the year of CU's devastating loss to Notre Dame at the Orange Bowl. Baumgartner religiously attended CU men's and women's basketball games.

The year after graduation, he started working in Germany as an intern for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. He's now stationed in Prague, Czech Republic as a senior online media editor for the outlet.

In Europe, where alumni aren't as deeply attached to their universities, class rings aren't popular, Baumgartner said. Europeans have often asked Baumgartner why he still wears that clunky piece of jewelry on his finger two decades after graduation.

For the journalist working in Europe, it's a symbol of his love for his school and his connection to Colorado.

***

Baumgartner, as a newlywed on his honeymoon, took his wife to Santorini in early September.

He removed his wedding band before taking a swim along the black-sand beach. He forgot to slip off his class ring.

After 10 minutes in the water, his finger felt bare and light.

Baumgartner spent hours diving in the sea, wishing for a miracle as he scoured the shallower parts of the water looking to reclaim his ring.

Then, he lost hope.

"I assumed the ring was heavier than the light volcanic rocks on the beach and had been drawn farther out to sea, never to be seen again," Baumgartner said.

***

Back at the journalism school, Gaeddert tried to solve the mystery.

She found a phone number for Baumgartner's mother in Colorado Springs, and both women were curious about what the Finnish man and his son had found in the waters of Santorini, and why it was so important to return it.

Gaeddert, now with Baumgartner's e-mail address in hand, passed along the abstruse message.

***

In short order, the Kekalainens and Baumgartner set up a rendezvous.

The Kekalainens drove from their home in southern Finland -- where Annti Kekalainen works as a firefighter and rescue diver -- to a nearby town's gas station. A friend of Baumgartner's happened to be traveling to Prague during her college break. They passed along the clunky treasure to her.

She arranged to meet the guy whose name was etched on the ring at the airport.

Baumgartner said he is amazed with the journey of his ring, and the trouble everybody went through to track him down, when he thought that his ring was truly lost to the sea. To show his appreciation, he sent some Czech beer and a bottle of Becherovka liquor to Antti Kekalainen and a Czech hockey jersey to Alex.

Baumgartner sent an e-mail to CU's journalism school this fall, showing his appreciation.

"This story, I think, shows that the ocean is not too deep, the world not too big, and that CU is the greatest university on Earth. (I mean, could this have happened to a Nebraska alum? Never)," he wrote.

And he typed it with the treasured ring firmly on his finger.

Contact Camera Staff Writer Brittany Anas at 303-473-1132 or anasb@dailycamera.com.