In Memoriam: Randy Pausch

Randy Pausch giving a speech at the 2008 Commencement exercises at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh PA.

INCIDENT:
Carnegie Mellon computer science professor Randy Pausch died today of complications from pancreatic cancer. He was only 47 years old and is survived by his wife, Jai and their three children, Dylan, Logan and Chloe. Pausch gained national and international fame recently for his "last lecture" delivered at Carnegie Mellon in September of 2007. The video of the lecture made its rounds on YouTube and resulted in a book that further expounded on the themes of the original lecture -- live out your childhood dreams. I wrote about his lecture in a post called "I want to be a Tigger!" back in October and since then I have been searching for more of his great wisdom on life. Luckily, Pausch had many great friends and had touched the lives of a countless number of students. His legacy will live on in each and every person that encountered him in person and through the blessing of technology. One of Pausch's friends and colleagues at University of Virginia, Dr. Gabriel Robins, has a great website with videos, PowerPoint slides, and PDFs of Pausch's recent and not-to-recent lectures for the public to enjoy. If you haven't yet, take a moment and be moved by the strength and courage of this man. Afterwards, I am certain you will be believe that you can move mountains... and you will want to.

MORAL:
My deepest sympathies to Randy Pausch's family and to all those who were close to him. I hope and pray that his children will know what an amazing man their father was and how his life inspired millions. As a wonderful professor at UVA and CMU, he encouraged his students to push the limits of creativity and technology. Those of us that did not get the chance to take Dr. Pausch's Building Virtual Worlds class (there was always a very long wait list!) were still moved by his presence on campus. You can not say that about many professors outside of your own discipline. His "last lecture" and his time management lecture gave him the chance to inspire the world.

For sharing his message and his struggle, I will always be grateful.