West Seattle’s Roxhill Elementary is known as “Home of the Stars.” This past week, some of its students got to meet someone who has gotten closer to the stars than most of us ever will: A three-time NASA shuttle astronaut, retired U.S. Navy Capt. John O. Creighton (above, and below left).

Roxhill Principal Carmela Dellino (above center) shared photos along with news of last week’s surprise visit by Capt. Creighton and Rotary Club of Seattle secretary Ralph Davis, who brought presents for each third-grader: A dictionary, pens, and pencils.

From Capt. Creighton, autographed photos and stories about life in space. Principal Dellino says the third-graders “hurriedly looked up words like shuttle, launch and space station” in their new dictionaries.

Capt. Creighton piloted mission STS-51G of the shuttle Discovery in 1985 and commanded two missions – STS-36 on the shuttle Atlantis in 1990, and STS-48 back aboard Discovery in 1991. In addition, as noted in his official NASA biography, he served as “the astronaut representative to the Shuttle Program Manager” which included two years during which he “participated in all the key decisions following the Challenger disaster helping to shape the plan for resuming safe manned space flight.” The surprise astronaut visit and Rotarian gifts led one Roxhill third-grader, Victor G, to exclaim, as quoted by the principal: “I got a dictionary of my very own, and I met an astronaut! This is the best day of my life!”