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In the dark, empty firehouse HQ of the Ghostbusters, the television flickered on. It started on a black and white rerun of "I Love Lucy," then flipped through several other channels before stopping on the image of a news anchor with greying hair.
“The last remaining founding member of The Ghostbusters has died," the man intoned solemnly. "We now go to reporter Marcia Gregory for a look back at a remarkable legacy.”
“Thanks Jim. Today, the building behind me is a museum. Forty-six years ago, the ground floor housed Zhu's Authentic Hong Kong Food. If you'd been here then and climbed the stairs to the second floor, you would have been standing in the original headquarters of the Ghostbusters.
The Ghostbusters rose to fame after they prevented the destruction of New York City during The Battle of Times Square in 2016. Last night the final founding member, Patty Tolan, passed away at the age of 84. I was fortunate enough to interview her six years ago, when she earned her doctorate in history from NYU. "Joyful" is the best word I can find to describe Tolan, a native New Yorker who was the resident historian and archivist of the group she began with scientists Dr. Abby Yates, Dr. Jillian Holtzmann and Dr. Erin Gilbert.
Heroism is not without its great losses, and the Ghostbusters were hit with their first soon after their greatest victory. Gilbert, a particle physicist who rejected an offer of tenure at Columbia to serve the public good as a Ghostbuster, was killed by a malevolent entity during a bust in late 2017. History remembers Gilbert as an articulate and fearless woman who as at-home wielding a proton shotgun as she was fundraising for "Like a Girl," the non-profit she created to encourage young girls to choose careers in the sciences. "Like a Girl" continues its work today, awarding more than $600,000 in scholarships to extraordinary students every year. Gilbert is also remembered for her work as the co-author of “Ghosts of Our Past: Both Literally and Figuratively,” a groundbreaking tome she penned with fellow Ghostbuster Abby Yates.
Abby Yates began her career as a distinguished scientist, but her lasting legacy is as the author of seven books about the paranormal. Two of them are complex, highly academic works that would fly over the heads of most PhDs, but the bestselling volumes were those she wrote for the masses. The most beloved of these was “The Kid Whose Best Friend Was a Ghost,” a children's book that helped show a generation that not all ghosts were scary. Even though the Ghostbusters had no official leader, by all accounts Yates was their anchor. When she passed away in 2026 after a long illness, Holtzmann and Tolan chose to pass the torch to a new team. Yates's legacy lives on, in the children who are inspired to be brave by her book, and in her daughter Erin Valentine, named for Gilbert and called “E.V.”
Jillian Holtzmann was the charismatic genius who invented the technology that made ghost-busting possible. Much is known about her work, which changed the face of several industries, but she lived a private life. Tax records show she gave much of what she earned from the hundreds of patents she held to charity, including Gilbert’s “Like a Girl” scholarship fund. Holtzmann also established four safe spaces for homeless gay and lesbian youth: Yates House in Chinatown, Gilbert House in Morningside Heights, Tolan House in Astoria, and the eponymous Holtzmann House in Dyker Heights. After her retirement from the Ghostbusters, Holtzmann’s work focused on the development of durable bionic limbs. She made great advances in the field before she was killed in a tragic lab accident in 2040.
Patty Tolan and Jillian Holtzmann were married in 2019. They had two daughters: Rebecca, who passed away in 2029 at the age of eight, and E.V., who they raised as their own after the death of her mother Abby.
Tolan outlived her wife by 22 years. She never remarried. During our interview six years ago, she spoke candidly about the loss of Yates, Gilbert, and even Rebecca, but when I asked her to tell me about Holtzmann, she fell silent. After much thought, she asked to move on to the next question.
Tonight The New York City skyline is lit up, with the windows of skyscrapers spelling out messages of thanks to the original Ghostbusters, one last time. A new team is in place at the firehouse, ready to come to the rescue if there’s something strange in your neighborhood. It includes E.V. Yates, who walks in the footsteps of the three women she called “Mom” every time she straps on her proton pack. In title, Yates is the Ghostbuster’s historian; during our interview, Tolan described her as “their heart.”
Even though the four brave women who began it are now all ghosts themselves, the Ghostbusters legacy will live on. Their research never led to concrete answers about the afterlife, but I hope that that wherever they are, whatever comes next, the heroes of the Battle of Times Square have been reunited tonight.
I'm Marcia Gregory, reporting live from Chinatown for ABC7, Eyewitness News.”