When Doug Simons was a boy in rural Florida, he received a gift of a small telescope. After setting up the device, the seventh grader was delighted to find Saturn in the night sky.

It was a magical moment that would end up guiding his path for the rest of his life.

“Even as a kid, I knew what my passion was,” he said.

Simons, executive director of the Canada-France- Hawaii Telescope on Mauna Kea, will bring his passion to the University of Hawaii as the next director of the Institute for Astronomy.

The former director of Mauna Kea’s Gemini Observatory will start his new job Sept. 1, becoming IfA’s first permanent director since Gunther Hasinger, who left in 2017 to become director of science at the European Space Agency, Europe’s equivalent to NASA.

UH’s highly regarded research institute is one of the nation’s largest university astronomy programs, with observatories on Mauna Kea and Haleakala, and it is among the top three programs at the university in terms of the amount of research dollars generated.

Earning his Ph.D. from IfA in 1990 and working on Hawaii island since his graduation, Simons will become the first director of Hawaii’s astronomy department not considered an outsider.

And unlike Hasinger — and every other one of his predecessors — Simons will run the institute not from Manoa, but from IfA’s office in Hilo three minutes from his house.

“I’m a small-town guy, so working here is a good fit,” he said, noting that he’s an avid upland game bird hunter, an activity he would miss too much if he moved to Oahu.

Simon’s appointment comes at a crucial time — with the planned Thirty Meter Telescope hanging by a thread, UH under attack for its management of the Mauna Kea Science Reserve and the mountain’s master lease set to expire in 2033.

A leader in the Big Island astronomy community, Simons has spent much of the past six years reaching out to TMT foes, working to find compromise and educating the community about the important work of astronomers and the observatories atop Hawaii’s tallest mountain.

After construction of the TMT was stopped by protesters the first time in 2015, he organized a series of community listening sessions aimed at bringing both sides to the table.

Later, Simons helped to develop EnVision Maunakea, an initiative that worked to gather varying perspectives on the future of Mauna Kea, as well as the Maunakea Fund to advance scientific, cultural and environmental programs on the mountain.

To educate the next generation, Simons created the Maunakea Scholars program, which gives high school students observing time at the Maunakea Observatories, and helped found A Hua He Inoa, a program that allows Hawaiian-speaking students to come up with Hawaiian names for astronomical discoveries made in Hawaii.

A resident of Hilo since 1997, Simons has served on the Maunakea Management Board, Hawaii Island Chamber of Commerce and Kona- Kohala Chamber of Commerce.

“Doug Simons is the leader IfA needs as Hawaii navigates through a pivotal period for the future of astronomy,” UH President David Lassner said in a statement. “Doug is highly accomplished and respected as a leader in the astronomy community and he has proven his commitment to honest and consistent community and educational outreach.”

As director of the Gemini Observatory from 2006 to 2011, Simons oversaw both of the facility’s telescopes in Hawaii and South America. Once a quarter, he would travel to Chile and set up shop for two weeks.

Simons figures he can handle the travel back and forth from Hilo to Honolulu. He plans to spend at least one day a week at IfA’s offices in Manoa.

“I plan to have an open-door policy,” he said. “Leadership being present is really important.”

Simons said he hopes to increase the number of underrepresented students in the department and strengthen ties with the dozen or so Maunakea Observatories to offer more student opportunities, among other goals.

As far as the pressing issues on Mauna Kea are concerned, Simons said the renewal of the science reserve master lease has eclipsed the TMT in urgency, and his focus has transitioned from the planned cutting-edge telescope to finding a pathway for the extension of the lease.

“It’s absolutely essential,” he said.

Without it, he said, the telescopes likely will have to come off the mountain, and the future of astronomy in Hawaii will be in serious jeopardy.

“In a strong sense, if we lose Hawaii astronomy, everyone comes out a loser,” Simons said.

UH is working hard on the environmental documents needed to extend the lease, Simons said, and he remains optimistic the university will get the job done despite the opposition it faces, including the same largely Native Hawaiian group that has put up legal and regulatory roadblocks in front of the TMT.

Simons said he would not be surprised to see the lease wind up in court in the same way the TMT did.

“The issue could be decided by Supreme Court members who have not been named, by a governor who has yet to be elected and a Land Board with members currently not seated,” he said.

The possibility of a protracted court battle, he said, makes the lease’s expiration date 12 years in the future seem not so far away.

In the meantime the state House of Representatives is launching a task force assigned to come up with recommendations for a new Mauna Kea management structure to replace the university. The panel will be given a full year to complete its work.

Simons said he appreciates the desire by lawmakers to improve the way the mountain is managed, but he’s worried a management change will end up delaying the master lease extension at a time when additional delay is not optimal.

In any case, as a member of UH’s Maunakea Management Board and a longtime Mauna Kea scientist, he said the university’s oversight in the last 20 years, in his view, has been exceptional.