Chapman swag: Don’t leave home without it A University pennant helps solve a mystery that starts in a Yellowstone river and ends with recovered pictures

Here’s a fun story about two sisters, two brothers, a water-logged camera and some tidy little detective work that snakes its way back to Chapman. Oh, and the story comes with a moral: Never doubt the mystery-solving power of Chapman swag.

Let’s start with the moment of discovery. Brothers Scott and Randy Marrett, Ph.D., a geology professor at the University of Texas, were trout fishing in Yellowstone recently when Randy stumbled on a rusty digital camera in the clear waters of the Fall River. The camera, seen at right, clearly was a loss, but the SIM card seemed salvageable. Indeed, the brothers were able to download photos that included several showing people smiling and posing at Waikiki Beach. They knew the location because Diamond Head is in the background.

Several of the Hawaii photos also show people holding a Chapman pennant, which is why Scott reached out to the University and ended up trading emails with Brady Hogan, director of alumni engagement at Chapman.  Hogan saw the photo shown atop this post and recognized alumnus Wayne Bennett ’48, left, who has since passed away, as well as Marcus Hokama ’09 and Professor Ann Gordon, Ph.D. So Hogan emailed Gordon.

“I thought it must be a mistake, because he described some of the pictures, and I’ve never been fishing,” said Gordon, associate professor of political science and associate dean of Wilkinson College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences. “Then it occurred to me it might be my sister’s camera.”

Sarah Gordon, Ph.D., an associate professor of French at Utah State University, had joined Ann for a 2011 social science conference in Hawaii that included a Chapman alumni get-together. The same camera Sarah used in Hawaii went with her on a 2012 Fall River fishing trip. You guessed it – she dropped the Cannon point-and-shoot in the river, where it was found by the Marretts four years later.

Completing the story’s happy ending, Ann Gordon is glad to have back the Chapman photos she hadn’t realized were lost.

“It’s like finding a time capsule you’d forgotten you buried,” she says.