Renowned primatologist, ethologist, and anthropologist Jane Goodall devoted her work to studying chimpanzees in Gombe Stream National Park in Tanzania.
Dame Valerie Jane Morris Goodall was born April 3, 1934, in Hampstead, London, to Mortimer Herbert Morris-Goodall and Margaret Myfanwe Joseph, and her twin sister Judith Goodall. When she was young, her father gifted her a stuffed toy chimpanzee named Jubilee. Goodall said that’s what sparked her fondness for her love of animals.
Jane Goodall died in her sleep of natural causes on October 1, 2025, at 91 years of age in Los Angeles, California while on a speaking tour. Jane Goodall will forever be remembered as an important figure in history through her life and legacy, research, her impacts in Tanzania, and her impacts on the study of chimpanzees.
Former Managing Editor of the AL Echoes Dean Pope, who currently attends Iowa State University, shares the same birthday as Jane Goodall: April 3rd.
Pope said that Goodall not only inspired people through her work, but is his hero.
“Truely she is my hero, she’s just incredible,” said Pope. “She was an incredible woman, who inspired people around the world through her research and charity work. She brought so many issues to the public consciousness, but also widened our understanding of human history with her work researching chimpanzees.”
Pope thinks that the hardest part of science is not the science itself, but rather being able to reach people.
“I think it is the fact that the hardest part of science is connecting it to people. You can go to school and learn how to study, but being able to reach people that’s the key, and she was able to do that,” said Pope. “She was an incredibly smart individual who was able to live with chimpanzees.”
Roots and Shoots is a global youth program of the Jane Goodall Institute that empowers young people to take action for the environment.
“Roots and Shoots especially is an amazing accomplishment and shows the culmination of her work,” said Pope. “I hope that her death inspires more people to join that organization.”
“Goodall got everyone invested and excited,” said Pope. “The kind of global outreach she achieved is astounding.”
