Randy Pausch died Saturday, July 28, 2008, from pancreatic cancer, eight months after he delivered his last lecture at Carnegie Mellon University. Since then his words have been heard online by millions, as well as turned into a bestselling book and several inspirational TV interviews.
He told an packed audience at Carnegie Mellon in September, 2007,
We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand.
His lecture, Achieving Your Childhood Dreams, wasn’t about his cancer, but about his life — reaching his own dreams and helping others to find theirs. He talked about wanting to be Captain Kirk, winning stuffed animals, being weightless, playing for the Pittsburgh Steelers, and becoming a Disney Imagineer. He thanked his mentors and colleagues and students, and he brought out a big birthday cake for his wife Jai.
He told his listeners,
The brick walls are there for a reason.The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something.
Facing the biggest brick wall of all. Dr. Pausch showed the audience his CT scans and remembered that his father had told him,
When there’s an elephant in the room, introduce them.
With his friend Jeffrey Zaslow, he wrote the bestseller The Last Lecture. During his daily bike rides, he spoke on his cell phone headset to Zaslow who listened to him and developed the book. In May, Zaslow wrote in the Wall Street Journal about the experience of knowing Pausch and how Randy Pausch lived his last months and 53 bike rides preparing his family for life without him.
Pausch was a professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon where he founded the Entertainment Technology Center and created Alice, a program that is used worldwide to help children learn to program computers by telling stories.
You can watch Pausch delivering his last lecture Achieving Your Childhood Dreams on YouTube.
Diane Sawyer interviewed Dr. Pausch for ABC News and you can watch The Last Lecture: A Story for Your Life. her interview with him. ABC will air The Last Lecture: A Celebration of Life, Tuesday July 29 on”Primetime at 10 p.m. ET
With humor, humility, and honesty Randy Pausch said,
I don’t know how not to have fun. I’m dying and I’m having fun.
July 29, 2008 at 10:52 pm, Deborah Kanter said:
I am watching ABC’s Primetime, a retrospective/tribute to Randy Pautsch while writing. Diane Sawyer is a good interviewer and her subject, Pautsch, is absolutely incredible. What lessons this wondrous professor is teaching me at the moment–about living, dealing with the finite aspects of life, and about keeping positive while realizing the reality of impending death.
I will read his book and perhaps assign it to some of the classes I teach.
Absolutely incredible. Well, it is the last few minutes; time to possibly search for a tissue.
July 30, 2008 at 4:44 pm, Kathleen said:
In ’02 my Mother was diagnosed with colon cancer and we 4 siblings were required to have a colonoscopy. My 3 brothers tests confirmed they were “cancer-free.” I was tested and anticipated the same results that Febraury. I was stunned to discover I had colonrectal cancer that had spread just short of the lymphnodes. I underwent 24-hour chemotherapy and radiation for 6-weeks. The tumor was removed in May. A tumor that had been the size of a large lemon and had shrank to the size of a nickel. Thereafter, I continued chemotherapy until December. I watched the interviewS intensely and was renewed and inspired by “Randy.” I am very thankful for the inspration he gave to the millions that have seen/heard his lecture. I believe God blessed him with his family and his family with him. His legacy has a purpose that will carry that household and mankind far into the future. God Bless them each and every one.
July 31, 2008 at 9:02 pm, nicolet said:
i’ve lost a loved one to cancer. it was not easy. 3 years later i still have the picture vividly in my mind of how much suffering my mom went through before she passed. somehow you find a way to deal with it. my heart goes out randy’s family. because i’ve experienced. whats worse is leaving his children behind at such a young age. but what he said in his lecture will always stand out to me, “he won’t be there to ctch his children whten they fall.” i have two kids and can’t imagine never not being there for them. he is truely someone to admire and always remember is courageous words. if only the whole world lived like this every day, every second, it would be such a better place. i will always remember his lecture and truely try to live by them.
August 05, 2008 at 5:24 pm, Lynne said:
I was diagnosed with Stage III rectal cancer in April. Randy’s perspective on life is one all should embrace. No one knows what tomorrow will bring, so we all should live life to the max. In the words of Tim McGraw, Live like there is no tomorrow. God bless Randy’s family and all that are fighting the fight.