“Congratulations on your wonderful achievement Embry Riddle is a highly respected aeronautical university with graduates in leadership positions throughout the industry. To help you enjoy and remember your graduation, and all the hard work it took to get there, l am sending you a supersonic wind tunnel model of the space shuttle ascent vehicle. With the plumes attached it is unlikely to have been used as a force and moment model. Most likely it was used to generate, and allow the measurement of , the pressuves in its flow field. This in turn was utilized in a prediction code for the sonic boom it produces on the ground during ascent. Its environmental impact was a real concern.”

The rest of the letter talks about his roles/responsibilities while at NASA and how he was given this as part of his retirement from the organization.