The University of Basilicata awards Rocco Petrone an honorary degree in mechanical engineering. This opportunity flatters Rocco Petrone in the States, but after some hesitation, partly due to his advanced age and partly due to an innate reluctance, he decides not to undertake the journey, preferring to retire to Palos Verdes Estates in Southern California, abandoning rockets, electronics, and computers to devote himself to his true passion: studying the American Civil War.
