A 37-cent donation to Florida Institute of Technology founder Jerome P. Keuper launched a remarkable story in American higher education. Keuper, a scientist working at Cape Canaveral, founded Florida Tech in 1958 to meet a critical need for scientists and engineers in America's race for space. Florida Tech quickly attracted some of the world's foremost rocket scientists. It awarded its first honorary doctorate in 1962 to astronaut Virgil "Gus" Grissom. Among its first visiting professors were Wernher von Braun and Edward Teller. Over the years, Florida Tech expanded its course offerings to take advantage of its unique location where the land, sea, sky and space come together, while maintaining internationally recognized excellence and its ties to the space program. Its graduates include five astronauts, among them Joan Higginbotham and Sunita Williams, who flew together on Space Shuttle Discovery in December, 2006.