A 'Tireless Advocate' for Our World

THE FAMED ETHOLOGIST DISCOVERED THE SECRETS OF CHIMPANZEES, REDEFINING HUMANS’ CONNECTION TO NATURE. UNTIL HER FINAL DAYS SHE SPREAD A MESSAGE OF HOPE FOR PEOPLE AND THE PLANET

- K. C. BAKER

Even in her 10th decade, Jane Goodall remained as busy as ever, traveling up to 300 days each year (her treasured stuffed monkey Mr. H always in tow) as she shared a message of conservation with the public. Her reason was simple, she told People in 2024: “I feel that I was put on this planet with a mission.”

After speaking at Climate Week in New York City in late September, she flew to Mexico and then to Los Angeles for more lectures. Following a busy day on Sept. 30, she was still up late emailing with her team. “She didn’t waste a second,” says Mary Lewis, her assistant of 30 years. Hours later, on Oct. 1, Goodall was found dead in her sleep at 91; the cause was natural.

Tributes poured in for the famed ethologist, a U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient and British Dame whose groundbreaking observations of chimpanzees in the Tanzanian wild changed how humans view animals and our place in nature. Those closest to Goodall say her legacy will live on.

“Everyone thinks, ‘Oh, we’re at the end of an era,’ ” Lewis says, “but the era isn’t going to end.”