Dian Fossey was born on January 16, 1932 in San Francisco, California. Dian loved animals her entire life, in spite of the fact that the only pets she ever had were fish. She studied preveterinary medicine at the University of California at Davis. Fossey later received her degree from San Jose State College, where she transferred to study occupational therapy. With this degree she worked at a Crippled Children's Hospital for many years, until she went to Africa in 1963 for a short trip. While there, she got her first glimpse at mountain gorillas. A mere three years later, anthropologist Louis Leakey convinced her to move to Africa for a longer time period.
Fossey founded the Karisoke Research Centre in 1967. From this point, she started living in the Virunga Mountains of Rwanda. Through intense observation from afar, and much necessary practice, Dian Fossey gained trust from the gorillas, enabling her to study them more closely. In 1974, Fossey received her Ph.D. degree from the University of Cambridge in zoology, and later taught at Cornell University, New York. In 1983, Dian Fossey's book, Gorillas in the Mist, was published, which brought her fame, but it also documented the hard work she put into the endangered species of mountain gorillas. On December 26, 1985, Dr. Fossey was murdered at her campsite at Karisoke. It is still a mystery as to why she was killed.