Shock at Pasadena Event as Jane Goodall Dies
The Jane Goodall Institute announced Wednesday morning, October 1, 2025, that Dr. Jane Goodall, DBE, UN Messenger of Peace and founder of the Jane Goodall Institute, has passed away due to natural causes. The news came just before a scheduled Pasadena event where more than 1,000 students, educators and community leaders had gathered for a tree-planting celebration.
What was meant to be a joyful launch of TREEAMS — a student-led effort to plant 5,000 trees — turned emotional. Erin McCombs of the Jane Goodall Institute told the crowd the sad news. Students and officials reacted with shock and grief, remembering Goodall’s decades of work for conservation and animals.
Jane Goodall ’s Final Visit: TREEAMS and a Grieving Crowd
Many in attendance had hoped to meet Goodall in person. An 11th-grade student, Chris Rosgen, said, “I cried. I wanted to meet her my whole life. She’s always been a hero to me.” Artin Tabibi, a 9th grader, said, “We were really gonna meet her, and like she was gonna be there in front of us, so just finding out the news was really sad.” Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger described the day as “a reflection of the life she lived.”
Goodall and students from Altadena, Pacific Palisades and L.A. County were due to kick off TREEAMS together. Instead, the gathering became a moment of gratitude and honor for the legacy she left behind.
Jane Goodall’s Work and Scientific Breakthroughs
Dr. Jane Goodall revolutionized the study of primates through immersive fieldwork at Gombe Stream Chimpanzee Reserve. She arrived in Gombe in 1960 at the request of her mentor, anthropologist Dr. Louis Leakey, and began observing chimpanzees in their natural habitat. At 26 and without formal higher education, she lived among the animals and learned to read their emotions.
Her close bond with an older chimp she named David Graybeard broke initial barriers — “They’d never seen a white ape before,” she later said — and led to moments of communication that she described as predating human language. Living with the chimps, Goodall documented that they ate meat and not only used tools but made them, a discovery that challenged assumptions about human uniqueness.
Her first major public account came in 1963 with an article in National Geographic titled “My Life Among Wild Chimpanzees.” Leakey secured funding from National Geographic, and in 1962 the filmmaker Baron Hugo van Lawick arrived to document her work. They later married in 1964 and had a son three years later.
From Curious Child to World-Renowned Primatologist
Born in London, Goodall’s fascination with animals began early. She recalled being enchanted by a farm visit at age four and a half and spending childhood hours reading high in her favorite tree. She saved money to travel to Africa despite World War II and little support financially. Her mother’s encouragement — “work hard, take advantage of opportunity, but above all, never give up” — helped sustain her dream.
Goodall earned a doctorate in ethology from Cambridge University in 1965 and, with van Lawick, established the Gombe Stream Research Center that same year. Gombe remains home to the longest continuous study of a wild animal community in the world.
Honors, Influence and Legacy
Goodall’s work changed how scientists view animal behavior and emotions. She was appointed Dame of the British Empire in 2004, named a UN Messenger of Peace in 2002, and received the US Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2025. The United Nations said she “worked tirelessly for our planet and all its inhabitants, leaving an extraordinary legacy for humanity and nature.”
Her methods — naming animals rather than numbering them, documenting personalities, and living among the chimps — were once criticized by fellow scientists. Goodall stood by her observations, arguing they challenged notions of human uniqueness.
Personal Life and Long-Term Impact
Her partnership with filmmaker Hugo van Lawick brought her story to a wider audience through film and photography. The 2017 documentary “Jane” captured episodes of her life and work. Goodall’s discoveries about tool use, social bonds and chimpanzee emotions reshaped ethology and inspired generations of conservationists.
Today, students, scientists and community leaders mourn the loss of Dr. Jane Goodall while celebrating the many ways her life altered our understanding of animals and the natural world.
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