Larry Lindsey Kimura (born June 29, 1946) is a Hawaiian linguist. He is a professor of the Hawaiian language and Hawaiian studies at the University of Hawaiûi at Hilo in the Ka Haka ûUla O Keûelikà Âlani, College of Hawaiian Language.
Larry was born in Waimea, Hawaii County, Hawaii, U.S.A., between his issei father Hisao Kimura, who had immigrated from Hiroshima, Japan, and his Hawaiian mother, Elizabeth Lindsey, who had been brought up in a predominantly Hawaiian-speaking family.
Kimura has been an advocate for the revival of the once-prestigious Hawaiian language from its near-endangered state, he was a co-founder of ûAha Pà «nana Leo.
Astronomers consulted with Kimura to create Hawaiian names for notable stellar objects discovered or imaged from Hawaii.
He was part of the committee who named the first interstellar asteroid observed in the solar system, ûOumuamua, alongside his niece, Ka'iu Kimura.
In April 2019, astronomers operating the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope and CanadaâÂÂFranceâÂÂHawaii Telescope (part of the Event Horizon Telescope array), such as Doug Simons, approached Kimura to give a Hawaiian name to the recently imaged black hole M87* in the galaxy Messier 87, in recognition of the fact that the telescope was on Mauna Kea. Kimura came up with the name "Pà Âwehi", from pà  'darkness' or 'night' and wehi 'darkness' or 'adornment' to suggest "the adorned fathomless dark creation" or "embellished dark source of unending creation", found in the intensified form pà Âwehiwehi in the Kumulipo, a Hawaiian creation chant recorded in the 18th century. (Pà Âwehiwehi means 'darkness streaked with glimmers of light', a generating agent of a stage in the development of life on earth as it advances toward the light, from pà  'darkness' and wehiwehi 'dappled shade'.) The governor of Hawaii declared 10 April 2019 to be "Pà Âwehi Day". Unlike Oumuamua, however, the name Pà Âwehi has not been submitted to the IAU, as the IAU has no provision for accepting names for galaxies or black holes.