McDonald Observatory is a research unit of The University of Texas at Austin (UT). Observatory facilities are located atop Mount Locke and Mount Fowlkes in the Davis Mountains of West Texas. Funded initially with money bequeathed by Texan William Johnson McDonald, the observatory was established as a collaboration between UT and the University of Chicago in 1932. Russian-born astronomer Otto Struve designed the original structure and served as the observatory's first director. A second period of major expansion commenced in 1963 with the appointment of Harlan J. Smith as chair of the UT Astronomy Department and director of the McDonald Observatory.