Dr. Jane Goodall, DBE
Founder – Jane Goodall Institute
UN Messenger of Peace
Ethologist, conservationist, and philanthropist
Dr. Jane Goodall, DBE, founder of the Jane Goodall Institute, UN Messenger of Peace, Officer in the Order of Orange-Nassau, and world-renowned ethologist, conservationist, and philanthropist, has passed away at the age of 91.
Dr. Jane was known worldwide for her 65-year study of wild chimpanzees in Gombe, Tanzania. Later in her life, she broadened her focus and became a global advocate for various animal and conservation-related causes.
Jane was passionate about promoting youth involvement in conservation and humanitarian projects and led many educational initiatives focused on both wild and captive chimpanzees. She was always guided by her fascination with the mysteries of evolution and her belief in the fundamental need to respect all forms of life on Earth.
Born Valerie Jane Morris-Goodall, Jane was the eldest daughter of businessman and race car driver Mortimer Herbert Morris-Goodall and writer Margaret Myfanwe Joseph.
Jane developed her passion for wild animals at an early age and read about nature whenever she could. Her dream was to travel to Africa, learn more about animals, and write books about them. After working as a waitress to save enough money for the boat trip to Kenya, Jane was advised to contact renowned paleontologist Dr. Louis Leakey. Louis gave her a job as a secretary at the National Museum in Nairobi. Here, Jane had the opportunity to spend time with Louis and Mary Leakey in the Olduvai Gorge, searching for fossils.
After seeing Jane's patience and perseverance, Louis asked her to travel to Tanzania to study families of wild chimpanzees in the forests of Gombe. Looking back on this, Jane always said that she would have liked to study any animal, but considered herself particularly fortunate to have the opportunity to study man's closest living relative in the wild.
On July 14, 1960, Jane arrived in Gombe for the first time. Here she developed her unique understanding of chimpanzee behavior and made the groundbreaking discovery that chimpanzees use tools. Knowing that Jane would only be taken seriously with an academic title, and despite her lack of a university degree, Louis arranged for Jane to study for a PhD in ethology at Newnham College, Cambridge. Jane's thesis, “The Behavior of Free-Living Chimpanzees in the Gombe Stream Reserve,” in 1965. Her three-month study then led to an extraordinary research program that continues to this day.
Jane has been married twice. Her first husband, Hugo van Lawick, was a Dutch baron and nature photographer who worked for National Geographic when they met. Jane and Hugo divorced in 1974, and Jane later married Derek Bryceson, a member of the Tanzanian parliament and former director of Tanzania's national parks. Derek died in 1980.
During her lifetime, Jane wrote more than 25 books for adults and children, and appeared in several documentaries and films, including two major IMAX productions. In 2019, National Geographic opened “Becoming Jane,” an exhibition dedicated to Jane's life's work at their Washington, D.C., museum. In 2020, “The Hope” premiered, a documentary that captured her tireless work as a global activist for a healthy planet.
Her awards reflect her exceptional contributions to various fields. In 2002, she was appointed UN Messenger of Peace. Two years later, she was appointed Dame Commander of the British Empire (DBE) at Buckingham Palace. In 2023, Jane was knighted as an Officer in the Order of Orange-Nassau. Jane has also received France's Légion d'honneur, the Benjamin Franklin Medal in Life Science, Japan's prestigious Kyoto Prize, the Ghandi-King Award for Nonviolence, The Medal of Tanzania, and the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement. In addition, she has been recognized by local governments, educational institutions, and charities around the world.
Jane founded the Jane Goodall Institute in 1977, initially to support her research in Gombe. There are currently 25 JGI offices worldwide, including one in Belgium.
In 1991, Jane founded Roots & Shoots, her global humanitarian and environmental program for young people of all ages. The initiative was created thanks to 12 high school students in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Roots & Shoots is now active in more than 65 countries and has inspired and encouraged young people in more than 120 countries to take action. Roots & Shoots members have the opportunity to participate in practical programs to bring about positive change for animals, the environment, and their local communities. Children in Belgium are also taking action through Roots & Shoots.
In 2017, Jane established the Jane Goodall Legacy Foundation to ensure the continued stability of the key programs she had created—her life's work.
Throughout her life and remarkable career, Jane inspired generations of scientists, offered hope to countless people from all walks of life, and impressed upon us all that “each of us makes a difference every day—it is up to us to decide what that difference will be.”
Her legacy lives on in the ongoing research in Gombe, the community-focused conservation program TACARE, the work at the Chimp Eden sanctuary in South Africa and Tchimpounga in Congo-Brazzaville, and Roots & Shoots, which empowers young people to take action for people, animals, and the environment. Although Jane traveled more than 300 days a year, Bournemouth (UK) was her home base, in the house where her grandmother and mother had lived before her. Her sister Judy Waters and her family played a crucial role in supporting Jane's work over the years and always gave her a warm welcome when she returned home. Jane is survived by her son Hugo Eric Louis van Lawick (affectionately known as Grub) and her three grandchildren, Merlin, Angel, and Nick.