Remembering Dr. Goodall

Dr. Jane Goodall, famed primatologist and conservationist, died last month at age 91.

Born Valerie Jane Morris-Goodall in England, Goodall was fascinated by animals from an early age and dreamed of traveling to Africa. When she was 10, she read “Doctor Dolittle” and “Tarzan,” and those books helped shape the rest of her life. Goodall worked as a waitress to save enough money to travel to Kenya, where she met a respected paleontologist who hired her as a secretary.  

Goodall’s patience and determination paid off in 1960 when she was sent to study families of wild chimpanzees in the forest of Gombe, Tanzania. There, she began developing her unique understanding of chimpanzee behavior. She is also credited with discovering that chimpanzees use tools, an observation that completely changed how we view the relationship between other species and humans.

Goodall later earned a PhD in ethology, which is the study of animal behavior. She earned her degree from the University of Cambridge, writing her thesis about the first five years of study at the Gombe National Park. Though Goodall is known for studying primates, she loved all animals—especially dogs.

“My favorite animal altogether is a dog because dogs have taught me so much and dogs are so faithful and dogs give unconditional love and I don’t like to think of a world without dogs,” said Goodall.

Goodall continued her research, founded the Jane Goodall Institute, and was named a United Nations Messenger of Peace—championing environmental causes and the impact that youth can have on the planet.

“I think the…key thing is to realize that every day on this planet, you make a difference,” said Goodall in a statement shortly before she died. “If you start thinking about the consequences of the small choices you make — What you buy? Where did it come from? How was it made? …you start thinking like that, and millions of people around the world thinking like that, then we start to get the kind of world that we cannot be too embarrassed to leave to our children.”