Primates

Jane Goodall, the legendary researcher who has devoted her life to studying chimpanzees in Africa and educating the world about them, presented the annual L'Hommedieu Lecture at Rutgers College (Douglass Campus) on September 13th, 2000.

After waiting around after class for five hours I was lucky enough to be seated in the third row (behind the five rows of reserved seats). The lecture hall seated slightly over 500 people and there was a room set aside upstairs (so they could watch the lecture on tv) for those who were not able to get into the main hall, but still many people were turned away. When Goodall began to speak she acknowledge all the people who were standing outside looking in the windows.

She had the undivided attention of over 600 people for 75 minutes. She made us laugh with stories of her childhood and of her adventures. And brought tears to our eyes when she spoke about bushmeat and deforestation. There didn't seem to be a dry eye in the place when she told the story of the man who risked his life to save a chimpanzee at a zoo, after the chimpanzee had panicked and jumped into the water. When asked why he saved the chimp, he explained that when he looked into it's eyes, it was like looking into the eyes of a man.

Afterwards she got a five minute standing ovation, would have gone longer had we not been interrupted by the head of the Rutgers Anthropology Department. And I stood in line for over an hour to get her autograph. When I left, the line was stretched all the way down the hallway, out the door and around the building. Amazing how one person could mean so much to so many people. If I had to sum up the entire experience of meeting Jane Goodall, all I would be able to spit out is...WOW.