Fuji f40fd.
I own one and it's very simple to use. The face detection technology makes photos of people very easy to take, just point it and it will automatically focus on the faces in the picture. It might sound like a gimmick but works very well.
The low light performance is also good for a compact. Can get a bit noisy at high ISOs (it defaults to 800 with the flash on), so you might consider showing him how to put it in manual and limit the ISO to 400. But this might not be necessary and the noise is only a problem with big prints or if you pixel peep. It has ISO1600 and even 2000 available if you want small snaps without flash in dark conditions.
It has lots of presets for different conditions (sport, snow, landscape, fireworks, night mode etc...) so really there's no need to go into the settings more than to select a scene.
Even then auto does a good job and these arn't necessary.
Battery life is good, screen is very large, bright and easily visible in sunlight. The camera is small and fits into my pocket no problem and I don't notice it.
My only complaint won't affect you at all - limited manual controls. You can change the ISO but that's about it. No control over the shutter speed (except in fireworks mode) and aperture.
I believe the model down - f31fd has better low light performance. The one above f50fd has worse noise problems but more manual controls over the exposure.
I don't think you can go wrong with a Fuji compact
