Montgomery Award To celebrate his spaceflight in 1961, Grissom was made honorary Mayor of Newport News, Virginia, and a new library was dubbed the Virgil I. Grissom Library in the Denbigh section of Newport News, Virginia. The airport in Bedford, Indiana, where Grissom flew as a teenager was renamed Virgil I. Grissom Municipal Airport in 1965. A three-ton piece of limestone, inscribed with his name, was unveiled at the airport. His fellow astronauts ribbed him about the name, saying that airports were normally named for dead aviators. Grissom replied, "But this time they've named one for a live one." Virgil Grissom Elementary School in Old Bridge, New Jersey, was named for Grissom the year before his death. His death forced the cancellation of a student project to design a flag to represent Grissom and their school, which would have flown on the mission. Grissom was awarded the NASA Distinguished Service Medal for his Mercury flight and was awarded it a second time for his role in Gemini 3. The Apollo 1 crew was awarded the medal posthumously in a 1969 presentation of the Presidential Medal of Freedom to the Apollo 11 crew. Grissom's family received the Congressional Space Medal of Honor in 1978 from President Carter (White's and Chaffee's families received it in 1997). Grissom was granted an honorary doctorate from Florida Institute of Technology in 1962, the first-ever awarded by the university. Grissom was inducted into the International Space Hall of Fame in 1981, and the National Aviation Hall of Fame in 1987. Grissom was posthumously inducted into the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame in 1990. His wife, Betty Lavonne Moore, donated his Congressional Space Medal of Honor to the accompanying museum. Grissom posthumously received AIAA's Haley Astronautics Award for 1968. Memorials The dismantled Launch Pad 34 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station bears two memorial plaques to the crew of Apollo 1. The Kennedy Space Center features a memorial exhibit honoring the Apollo 1 crew in the Apollo/Saturn V Center, which includes artifacts and personal mementos of Grissom, Chaffee, and White. Grissom's name is included on the plaque left on the Moon with the Fallen Astronaut statue in 1971 by the crew of Apollo 15. The Grissom Memorial, a tall limestone monument representing the Redstone rocket and his Mercury space capsule was dedicated in downtown Mitchell, Indiana, in 1981. The Virgil I. Grissom Memorial in Spring Mill State