Florida Tech President: Faculty, Staff and Students Kindred Spirits With American Icon Buzz Aldrin
By T. Dwayne McCay, Ph.D, President, Florid Tech // July 3, 2018
‘Buzz Aldrin is an American Hero’
BREVARD COUNTY • MELBOURNE, FLORIDA — The faculty, staff and students of the Florida Institute of Technology are kindred spirits with American icon Buzz Aldrin.
When Buzz took those historic steps on the moon in 1969, our university was barely 10 years old—but was already charting a course as an important educational resource for NASA engineers, having been founded as the “night school for missilemen” on the burgeoning Florida Space Coast.
When Buzz announced three years ago that he would base his space institute at Florida Tech, his infectious passion for spaceflight’s future touched us all.
His subsequent work with our faculty and students has been nothing less than inspirational. Buzz’s unforgettable mantra, “Get your ass to Mars,” has entered the university lexicon, and indeed, sparked the imagination of the next generation.
I have had numerous conversations with Buzz over the past few years and have always been impressed with his intellect, his wit, and his relentless determination to see humans inhabit Mars. Florida Tech shares Buzz’s bold vision for the future of human spaceflight.
Buzz Aldrin is an American hero and a personal friend. Florida Tech has been deeply gratified by his association with our university.
We regret that this Aldrin family dispute has resulted in legal action that distracts from Buzz’s unparalleled legacy, and most importantly, from his amazing vision for the future of humans in space. We look forward to and wholeheartedly support a timely resolution to this unfortunate situation.
– T. Dwayne McCay, Ph.D., President, Florida Institute of Technology
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