Boyd was familiar with Nininger's collection and recognized its importance to Arizona and to ASU's pursuit of research in an up-and-coming discipline. Boyd, working with the chair of the Chemistry Department, Clyde A. Crowley, and ASU President Grady Gammage, solicited a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) in order to purchase the remainder of Nininger's collection and bring it to ASU. To bolster its proposal, ASU offered supporting funds from both the ASU Foundation and from Mr. Herbert G. Fales, the vice president of International Nickel Company, who was familiar with Nininger through his own interest in meteorites. NSF also recognized the importance of keeping the remainder of Nininger's collection in the United States and accepted the ASU proposal on June 8, 1960.

Figure 1: American Meteorite Museum, 1946-1953 (from: http://www.jensenmeteorites.com/)

Because Crowley was lead faculty on the NSF proposal, the care of the collection and promotion of its study was designated to the Chemistry Department. This was in keeping with the fact that the most well-established scientists studying meteorites at the time were chemists. Furthermore, NSF required that an Advisory Board, which had members appointed by institutions such as the National Academy of Sciences, the American Museum of Natural History and the Smithsonian, initially provide guidance on administration of the collection. ASU accepted the NSF guidelines and agreed to hire a director responsible for curating, managing and studying the collection.