WEST LAFAYETTE Ind.
Although he typically shuns attention, former astronaut Neil Armstrong addressed a crowd at Saturday’s wind-swept dedication of a new engineering building named for him at Purdue University, his alma mater.
In a brief speech outside the new Neil Armstrong Hall of Engineering, the first man to walk on the moon shifted the focus from himself to the building, saying faculty not the building’s name will make it valuable to students.
“We dedicate this building today, but by itself, it cannot impart knowledge. It requires people,” Armstrong, 77, told a crowd of about 350 who gathered for the dedication.
Armstrong, who graduated from Purdue in 1955 with a degree in aeronautical engineering, gained international fame when the Eagle, Apollo 11’s lunar module, landed on the moon on July 20, 1969. NASA chose Armstrong to descend a ladder and leave the first lunar footprints.
In the decades since, Armstrong has never been as visible as Buzz Aldrin, who followed him out of the Eagle and onto the lunar surface, said James Hansen, an Auburn University professor.
Hansen, who authored Armstrong’s 2005 autobiography, said Armstrong understands his fame, but he’s always been a bit uncomfortable with it because it was somewhat coincidental.
