My Grandfather ‘Delivered’ Jane Goodall

On an April day in 1934 a new mother was discharged from a London maternity home, along with her baby girl. Deeming her husband’s Aston Martin race- car too dangerous to transport their firstborn, she enlisted the help of a friend, the owner of a more sedate vehicle. It was my grandfather, Denis Robinson, who conveyed them safely home that day, an act emblematic of their friendship. But no one could have predicted that the baby clasped so carefully in her mother’s arms in Grandpa’s back seat, Valerie Jane Morris-Goodall, would grow up to be one of the world’s most famous conservationists.

Jane Goodall skyrocketed to fame at 29 in the August 1963 issue of National Geographic, captivating readers with her feature article, “My Life Among Wild Chimpanzees.” I was only a few years old at the time.  But as a teenager, I occasionally accompanied my grandfather to functions honoring “Dr. Jane,” and like many women in my Baby Boomer generation, I idolized the courageous young British scientist living in the African bush.

Later, after my grandfather died, I spent several years working as the African Adventures Specialist for the Jane Goodall Institute leading their high-level donors on safari in East Africa. And, it was a conversation with Dr. Jane, at one of her birthday parties several years ago, that planted the seed for my book, Saving Wild: Inspiration From 50 Leading Conservationists.