CMU prof Pausch dies of pancreatic cancer
Randy Pausch was given the rare opportunity to know he had only a limited amount of life left.
He used it.
The Carnegie Mellon University professor who gained worldwide acclaim for a lecture he gave at the university died today of pancreatic cancer. He was 47.
Pausch moved to Chesapeake, Va., last year to be close to family.
On his Web site yesterday, a friend posted that Pausch's cancer had progressed further than anyone expected. According to the blog entry, Pausch was too sick to continue posting and had entered hospice.
Doctors told Pausch in August 2006 that the advanced cancer would kill him in a matter of months. The father of three young children then gave a speech about achieving childhood dreams.
The bittersweet speech was recorded by Carnegie Mellon and posted on the Internet. According to Carnegie Mellon, more than six million people viewed the lecture, and it was translated into at least four languages. Pausch made appearances on "Good Morning America" and "Oprah."
The professor then wrote 206-page book called "The Last Lecture" with the Wall Street Journal's Jeffrey Zaslow that was published in April. In the book Pausch shared the lessons he learned during his life.
His wife, Jai, encouraged him to write the book as a "manual" for her and the kids. Pausch treated it as a way to give their children -- Dylan, 6; Logan, 4; and Chloe, 2 -- an enduring sense of who he was and what he wished for them.
The week before he gave the speech that made him a celebrity, Pausch said he wanted his children to remember him "as a guy who cared about them, and about their mother, very, very much. And as a guy who believed that each day was to be lived to the fullest, and that a positive attitude will get you a lot farther than anything else."
Pausch first arrived at Carnegie Mellon in 1982 as a last-ditch effort to get into the university's graduate program. Though previously rejected, Pausch convinced the school to admit him. In 1988 he earned his doctorate and taught for seven years at the University of Virginia before returning to Carnegie Mellon, this time as a computer science professor.
At Carnegie Mellon, Pausch co-founded the Entertainment Technology Center with drama and arts professor Don Marinelli. The center unites computer science and fine art students on projects that find an entertaining way to bring technology to audiences.
Pausch oversaw the development of Alice, free software that teaches children computer programming in a fun, engaging way. More than 10 percent of U.S. colleges use the program, and there are more than 1 million downloads of it annually.
During a visit in 1998 to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to give a lecture on virtual reality, Pausch met and fell in love with Jai. They were married in 2000 and lived in Shadyside.
"I'd been a bachelor for 39 years and, as they say, you know in a moment when it's different," Pausch said in an interview with the Trib shortly after learning his cancer would be fatal. "She's one of the only people I'd ever met who could stand up to me, and her wit and beauty compelled me to want to spend the rest of my life with her."
Given the chance to contribute to his own obituary, Pausch -- a disciplined saver who hoped for the best but planned for the worst -- requested the following message be passed on to readers:
"In lieu of flowers," he said, "use the money to increase your life insurance if you have kids."
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The following are remembrances from people close to Randy Pausch.
"I'd like to thank the millions of people who have offered their love, prayers and support," his wife, Jai Pausch, said in a statement. "Randy was so happy and proud that the lecture and book inspired parents to revisit their priorities, particularly their relationships with their children. The outpouring of cards and e-mails really sustained him."
"He was a brother I discovered late in life," said Steve Seabolt, of EA, Pausch's good friend who shared his passion for making computer programming accessible, particularly to girls. Seabolt was at Pausch's side when he died. "His intellect and his wry sense of humor were very much intact. ... I think (Pausch's story) prompted people to think about how they treat other people and the notion of karma, that what you put out there comes back to you. And making the most of every moment. You've got to have fun. Living and dying can be a wonderful adventure."
"What Randy calls for is more than one well-lived moment," said Rev. David Herndon, of the First Unitarian Church of Pittsburgh, of which Pausch was a member. "What he calls for is a whole lifetime of well-lived moments that build on one another."
"Randy had a remarkable ability to reach into his own life and find an anecdote, a funny story, an uplifting memory -- and then translate it in ways that resonated deeply with the rest of us," Wall Street Journal columnist Jeffrey Zaslow, who co-authored the book "The Last Lecture" with Pausch, said in a statement. "I first saw him move and inspire 400 people at his last lecture. It was astonishing to then watch his message leave that room and touch millions worldwide. As his co-author, it was a great honor to see his love of life from a front-row seat. I'll miss him."
"Randy had an enormous and lasting impact on Carnegie Mellon," University President Jared L. Cohon said in a statement. "He was a brilliant researcher and a gifted teacher. His love of teaching, his sense of fun and his brilliance came together in the Alice project, which teaches students computer programming while enabling them to do something fun -- making animated movies and games. Carnegie Mellon -- and the world -- are better places for having had Randy Pausch in them."
"Randy Pausch was an extraordinary person," said Hyperion Editor-in-Chief Will Balliett. "A gifted and generous teacher, Randy took all of us who knew him and the many who rightly felt they did, on an unforgettable journey. The thoughts of everyone at Hyperion are with his wife Jai, his children, and his family."
"Randy was a force of nature," Gabriel Robins, a computer science professor at the University of Virginia and Pausch's former colleague, said in a statement. "He had a very visceral, fundamental resonance to the core of humanity. It's not an accident that people flocked to him; people of all ages, cultures and religions. I though of him as a genius of many things -- not just science and research, but marketing, branding, selling, convincing, leading and showing by example."
"Good teaching is always a performance, but what Randy did was in a class all by itself," Andy van Dam, co-founder of the computer science department at Brown University, which Pausch attended as an undergraduate, said in a statement. Van Dam, a longtime mentor to Pausch, was impressed by "the care and affection he lavished on his students. They responded to him as athletes do to a great coach who cares not only about winning, but about the team players as individuals."
"In an era of ever-increasing specialization, Randy promoted interdisciplinary teams based upon mutual respect, building bridges between fine arts and computer science," Dan Siewiorek, head of Carnegie Mellon's Human-Computer Interaction Institute said in a statement. "Randy's legacy is his technology that made computer science accessible to the non-specialists." Additional Information:
Pausch's People
To honor Randy Pausch, Carnegie Mellon University is organizing a team called 'Pausch's People' for a 5K walk on Aug. 17 in North Park to raise money for pancreatic cancer research. Registration begins at 9 a.m. and the walk starts at 10 a.m. at the North Park Boathouse.
For more information, call Cleah Schlueter at 412-268-9656 or send an e-mail .
