A Pasadena gathering to celebrate efforts to help Los Angeles County areas recover from January’s devastating wildfires was jolted Wednesday morning as stunned students and educators learned of the death of Dr. Jane Goodall at an event at EF Academy, where the legendary naturalist was scheduled to speak.
“The Jane Goodall Institute has learned this morning, Wednesday, October 1, 2025 that Dr. Jane Goodall, DBE, UN Messenger of Peace, and the founder of the Jane Goodall Institute, has passed away due to natural causes,” Erin McCombs from the Jane Goodall Institute told the shocked crowd.
Students, educators and other attendees wept openly as they learned of the news. Goodall was in California as part of her speaking tour in the United States.
“Dr. Goodall’s discoveries as an ethologist revolutionized science, and she was a tireless advocate for the protection and restoration of our natural world,” McCombs said.
Attendees, including members from the Jane Goodall Institute and her organization Roots and Shoots, learned of her death at the assembly, just before she was scheduled to arrive at the podium.
Goodall was scheduled to help students celebrate planting the first of 5,000 trees, as part of the TREAMS program.
The “Tree Restoration Education and Awareness Movement for Students” was organized by students from EF Academy Pasadena, Saint Mark’s School in Altadena and other schools and organizations. Its goal: To plant more 5,000 trees in fire-scarred Altadena and Pacific Palisades in the next three to five years.
A trio of students crouched around a tree that was planted just this morning, crying, as the announcement was made.
Shifting the focus from the ambitious new program to the stunning news of the morning, organizers played a prerecorded video from Goodall, one of her last known messages.
After the video ended, attendees rose to their feet and applauded. Pasadena Councilmember Rick Cole then led the assembly in a moment of silence.
“You are the beneficiaries of the last message of a giant of the human race and a giant of our planet,” said Cole, fighting back tears.
“We are here to express our gratitude for the life and legacy of Dr. Jane Goodall,” said Gabrielle Crowe with UCLA. “We’re going to hold her in our hearts forever.”
Goodall became a household name internationally because of her intensely hands-on field research focusing and chimpanzees and other animals as well as her globe-spanning environmental advocacy. The popular film “Gorillas in the Mist” portrayed her work for millions in theaters and on TV.
While living among chimpanzees in Africa decades ago, Goodall documented the animals using tools and doing other activities previously believed to be exclusive to people, and also noted their distinct personalities. Her observations and subsequent magazine and documentary appearances in the 1960s transformed how the world perceived not only humans’ closest living biological relatives but also the emotional and social complexity of all animals, while propelling her into the public consciousness.
“Out there in nature by myself, when you’re alone, you can become part of nature and your humanity doesn’t get in the way,” she told The Associated Press in 2021. “It’s almost like an out-of-body experience when suddenly you hear different sounds and you smell different smells and you’re actually part of this amazing tapestry of life.”
In her later years, Goodall devoted decades to education and advocacy on humanitarian causes and protecting the natural world. In her usual soft-spoken British accent, she was known for balancing the grim realities of the climate crisis with a sincere message of hope for the future.
Her message was mapped out in the video played at the Pasadena event:
“I think the most key thing is to realize that every day on this planet, you make a difference,” she said in the recording. “And 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? Was the child slave labor? Did it harm the environment? What you eat, did it involve cruelty to animals?. If you start thinking like that, and millions of people around the world thinking like that, Then you start to get kind of world that we can not be too embarrassed to leave to our children.”
L.A. County Supervisor Kathryn Barger said the local tree-planting effort would continue — in honor of Goodall.
“We’re going to make sure that this legacy — something that (Dr. Goodall) literally planted the seeds on — continues to grow’” she said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report