Anyone proposing to offer a master class on changing the world for the better, without becoming negative, cynical, angry, or narrow-minded in the process, could model their advice on the life and work of pioneering animal behavior scholar Jane Goodall .

Goodall’s life journey stretches from marveling at the somewhat unremarkable creatures—though she would never call them that—in her English backyard as a wide-eyed little girl in the 1930s to challenging the very definition of what it means to be human through her research on chimpanzees in Tanzania . From there, she went on to become a global icon and a United Nations Messenger of Peace .

Until her death at age 91 , Goodall retained a charm, open-mindedness, optimism, and wide-eyed wonder that are more typical of children. I know

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