He passed away last August Dionysus Simopoulos, after a brave battle with cancer. The man who, in fact, introduced many generations to the charm of the starry sky and the natural world in general, was above all throughout his life what astronauts call a genuine “planetarium”: from 1969 to 1973 he was director of the planetarium at the Center for the Arts and Sciences of Louisiana, USA, and from April 1973 to April 2014 he was Director of the Eugenides Foundation Planetarium. Among other things, D. Simopoulos led to the creation of the New Digital Planetarium, one of the best in the world today.

His fame in this field extended beyond Greece: in December, Planetarian, the four-monthly official journal (print and electronic) of the International Society of Planetariums, devoted a full ten pages to the work and personality of Dionysios Simopoulos.

“It was not our initiative at all,” he tells me. Manos Kitsonas, current director of the Eugenides Planetarium. “August 7, the day of his death, The Planetarian himself contacted us to let us know that he would be asking international figures in the field to write specifically about Simopoulos in a publication. I remember that three days after his death, messages and calls began to arrive from the former directors of the organization, as well as from its current president, a Japanese. So they brought together a number of people who met and worked with Simopoulos’ texts for the December issue of Planetarian, which is published by the International Society of Planetariums, which is the preeminent organization of the global planetarium community. I was particularly impressed by the paragraph added at the end of the text by the editorial director, who, being quite young, did not know Simopoulos. The scale of the initiation is impressive, and this is the first time such a thing has happened. Never before in the journal’s nearly fifty-year history has more than a page been devoted to a deceased member of the community.”

The Planetarian dedicated ten pages to the memory of Dionysius Simopoulos, not only with personal recollections of foreign people in the field of planetariums and astronomy, but also with photographs, as well as with translated excerpts from the book The Salt of Life, written by D. Simopoulos in collaboration with journalist Makis Provatas. And the memories come from all over the world: Japan, Canada, Germany and many US states. The tribute also includes a touching text by Eleni Simopoulos, daughter of D. Simopoulos, as well as Manos Kitsons.

The care and concern of the foreign press evoke tenderness and surprise – surprise only on one side: in Greece it is little known that D. Simopoulos enjoyed special respect at the international level for decades: he was the president of the European Union for Astronomical Education. (1994-2002), he was a member of the Board of Directors. member of the International Planetary Society (1978–2008), member (since 1978) of the Royal Astronomical Society of England and the International Planetary Society (since 1980). In 1996 he received the highest award (IPS Service Award) of the International Planetary Society for his contribution to international astronomical education, and in 2006 he was awarded the Palmes Academiques of the French Ministry of Education.

The most beautiful image of Dionysus Simopoulos was given to the planetarium by his daughter Eleni: “For the last four years, my father has been happy with his friends, family and loved ones, has written several books, ate his favorite seafood, went crazy for sushi and she watched cooking shows on TV. He played music and sang when he wrote his books – some of them were scientific, others looked back on his whole life – but regardless of the topic, he wrote and sang.