Depends...does he fish from the surf or from a boat?
Surf: All sort of poppers and plugs of various weights and colors. Some Hopkins lures and stainless steel leaders are always nice to have.
Boat: Assorted squid spoons from small to large, poppers/plugs if he likes to cast a lot of spinning rods into schools, leaders, maybe a nice umbrella rig for trolling blues in the surf.
Whatever you get, try a variation of colors when buying plugs and poppers. Color does make a difference from time to time depending on season and water clarity.
Very kind of you. BTW, my 50th is coming up in 8 years!