Hutchinson ? The Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center hired a college professor and retired Navy officer as its new director.

Christopher Orwoll, a professor of naval science and director of Kansas University’s ROTC program, was named Friday to succeed Jeff Ollenburger, who left the museum in December to pursue business interests.

“I hope to combine my passion for the space program with the leadership experience that I have and use it to work together with the staff to continue to make this a great organization,” Orwoll said.

Orwoll, who has been at the university since 2003, will start March 5 as director of the nonprofit museum.

“We were looking for someone with leadership and team-building skills, someone who could harvest the best from a talented staff and who could start focusing on the future,” said Tom Sellers, chairman of the Cosmosphere board.

Orwoll has no prior experience running a museum, but Sellers said that wasn’t a concern.

“We have an excellent group of people with competency in working in the museum building,” Sellers said. “We thought we needed to focus more on harvesting the energy that’s already in place.”

Orwoll said his military experience would translate well to his new job at the Cosmosphere.

“It’s a nonprofit,” Orwoll said. “But guess what? So is a submarine. They just have slightly different missions.”

Orwoll, a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, is also the Navy ROTC’s national course coordinator.

He had not visited the Cosmosphere before applying for the director’s position, but said he had been interested in space since he was a child and had visited many other aerospace museums.

“This is the best museum I’ve ever seen in the way that it presents the history of the space programs – both ours and the Soviets’ – along a timeline from the very beginning,” Orwoll said.