The program includes details of the lunch program, including performances by the UAH Village Singers and the dedication of the Ambulatory Care Center. Program honorees included John R. Morton, Philip M. Mason, H. Clyde Reeves, former Vice President for Huntsville Affairs; and Ben Graves, UAH's first president.
Front row, from left: Students Mike McGuire, Libby Kemp, John Vital, Jim Uber. Second row, from left: Students Jim Smith, Ed Palmer, Becky Breeding, Cheryl Bankston; Faculty: Michele Crull, State Rep. to student Ken Peters, Faculty Dennis Wingo and John Gilbert.
Von Braun, then the director of Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, delivered this speech to the legislature in 1961. In the speech, he emphasizes that Alabama must take advantage of its position in the aerospace industry and create a robust "academic and research environment" in Huntsville to attract businesses that "will give birth to major new industries throughout the state." He exhorts the legislature to fund the newly established University of Alabama Research Institute (now part of the University of Alabama in Huntsville), arguing that "the Institute will not only be self-sustaining, but will enrich the State both financially and culturally." The legislature later approved von Braun's request of $3 million for the Research Institute, enabling the purchase of 200 acres of land for the campus and the construction of the Institute in 1964. The speech includes copies of slides von Braun used during his presentation, including diagrams of Saturn and Nova rockets as well as a mockup of a Saturn rocket on the lawn of the state capitol in Montgomery.