Finding Grace

Ronald H. Tammen, Jr., was a ridiculously handsome guy from the Cleveland area who, in the spring of 1953, was majoring in business at Miami University. He seemed to have everything going for him: brains (he carried a respectable GPA); leadership potential (he was a sophomore counselor in a freshman men's dorm); a certain degree of hipness (he played the string bass in a campus jazz band); and friends, both Greek (he was a Delt) and non-Greek. He was also one of the few students with a permit to have a car on campus, so he had that going for him too. On an otherwise forgettable Sunday evening, April 19, 1953, the guy whom many would have considered to be a shoo-in as a bank president someday made a name for himself in another way -- he vanished. It happened in the vicinity of Fisher Hall, a hulking old residence hall that has since been replaced by the Marcum Center. The story of Tammen's disappearance has become legendary, mostly because of the remnants he'd left behind -- an open textbook, a burning lamp, and most of the possessions he normally wouldn't have been caught dead without, including his wallet, keys, 1939 Chevy, and string bass. Tammen's disappearance was investigated by Miami officials, Oxford police, and even the FBI with no success. The author, who graduated from Miami in 1980, has been conducting her own search, talking to the people who'd known Tammen and uncovering as many new clues as she can in hopes of perhaps finally solving the case. This article describes a detour she took along the way.