I blog about the dying professor and his video lectures earlier this month.
Sadly he has passed away on Friday.
Rest in peace. You will not be forgotten. Your legacy will live on.
---------------------------------
The New Paper
28 July 2008
THIS DYING PROF TAUGHT MILLIONS HOW TO LIVE
LAST September, Mr Randy Pausch, a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, gave a talk to about 400 students, faculty and friends about some life lessons he'd learned.
The speech was part of a series that the university previously called 'The Last Lecture', where professors were asked to think about what matters to them most and give a hypothetical final talk.
Only in Prof Pausch's case, he really was facing death. He was in the early stages of pancreatic cancer, and he thought that an amiable presentation to his school - with the notion that his young children might value a videotape of the speech later on - might be a good idea.
On Friday, Prof Pausch, 47, died at his home in Chesapeake, Virginia.
His last lecture titled 'Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams' became an Internet hit. More than 6 million people have viewed highlights or the entirety of the 76-minute talk.
In April, based on the lecture, he published a book titled The Last Lecture and it leapt to the top of the non-fiction best-seller lists, where it remained this week. The book deal was reported to be worth more than US$6 million ($8.2m), reported AP.
Hyperion has 2.8 million copies of the book in print. It's being translated into more than a dozen languages.
What's so special about the lecture?
Prof Pausch talked about goals he had accomplished and those he had not, including becoming a professional football player.
IMAGES OF LIVER TUMOURS
His lecture began with him standing before a screen beaming down chilling CT images of the tumours in his liver under the title 'The Elephant in the Room'. He said he had recently been told he had no more than six months of good health left.
'I'm in really good shape. In fact, I am in better shape than most of you,' Prof Pausch said, dropping to the floor to do push-ups.
CNN reported that he used rejections he was handed when he applied for jobs at Disney to comment on the importance of persistence. 'The brick walls are there for a reason... to show us how badly we want something,' he said. 'Because the brick walls are there to stop the people who don't want it badly enough. They're there to stop the other people.'
Donning silly costume items like a vest with arrows sticking out of it and a Mad Hatter's hat, he described working with students as a way to help other people achieve their dreams.
He also played down his own importance, saying that after he got a PhD, his mother took to introducing him as 'a doctor, but not the kind who helps people'.
When he spoke, there was no million-dollar book deal and no promise of any sort of glory. He also spoke of death. 'If I don't seem as depressed or morose as I should be, sorry to disappoint you,' he said. 'If you have any herbal supplements or remedies, please stay away from me,' he said.
'I'm dying, and I'm having fun,' he said.
The Washington Post reported that he said he wasn't going to talk about things that were the most important - his wife, Jai, and children, Logan, Chloe and Dylan - but he would talk about making your childhood dreams come true.
That was the surface topic - stuff about how he wanted to be in zero gravity, play in the National Football League, write an article for the World Book Encyclopedia.
The underlying lesson, he said, was that if you live your life the right way, the dreams take care of themselves. Good conduct consisted of being earnest, honest, working hard and realising that brick walls in life are only there to separate those who really want to do something from those who just say they want to.
Do all that and 'the dreams come to you,' he said. The book was an afterthought.
Mr Jeffrey Zaslow, a Wall Street Journal columnist, attended the speech and wrote a column about it. It was a huge hit on the Journal's website, which led to television appearances for Prof Pausch and to much publishing buzz.
'It took him five weeks to make up his mind if he even wanted to do it,' Mr Zaslow told the Washington Post in a telephone interview.
The pair worked out the book during the course of 53 hour-long talks, conversing by phone while Prof Pausch cycled around his neighbourhood last winter to keep his strength up. Mr Zaslow put in Herculean hours and got the book out in April.
A professor of computer science, human-computer interaction and design, Prof Pausch was recognised as a pioneer of virtual reality research and became known on campus for his flamboyance and showmanship as a teacher and mentor.
Prof Pausch said he dictated the book to Mr Zaslow over the handphone, and Mr Zaslow recalled that he was 'strong and funny' during their collaboration. 'It was the most fun 53 days of my life because it was like a performance,' Mr Zaslow told AP. 'It was like getting 53 extra lectures.'
He recalled that Prof Pausch became emotional when they worked on the last chapter, though, because that to him was the 'end of the lecture, the book, his life.'
After his lecture last year, professional US football team the Pittsburgh Steelers invited him to take part in a practice, which was 'fantastic beyond my wildest dreams,' he told The New York Times.
GUEST SPOTS ON TV SHOWS
ProfPausch's message and story were so powerful they landed him on Oprah and other TV shows. He said he was embarrassed and flattered. But really, he said, the speech was for his three children.
Born in 1960, ProfPausch got his bachelor's degree in computer science from Brown University and his PhD from Carnegie Mellon. He taught at the University of Virginia from 1988 to 1997, when he came to Carnegie Mellon.
He co-founded Carnegie Mellon's Entertainment Technology Center, a master's programme for bringing artists and engineers together. He also created an animation-based teaching programme called Alice designed to teach computer programming to high school and college students.
Prof Pausch said of facing hardships head-on: 'I don't know how not to have fun,' he said. 'I'm dying and I'm having fun. And I'm going to keep having fun every day I have left.'
In a statement on Friday, his wife thanked those who sent messages of support and said her husband was proud that his lecture and book 'inspired parents to revisit their priorities, particularly their relationships with their children'.
Sadly he has passed away on Friday.
Rest in peace. You will not be forgotten. Your legacy will live on.
---------------------------------
The New Paper
28 July 2008
THIS DYING PROF TAUGHT MILLIONS HOW TO LIVE
LAST September, Mr Randy Pausch, a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, gave a talk to about 400 students, faculty and friends about some life lessons he'd learned.
The speech was part of a series that the university previously called 'The Last Lecture', where professors were asked to think about what matters to them most and give a hypothetical final talk.
Only in Prof Pausch's case, he really was facing death. He was in the early stages of pancreatic cancer, and he thought that an amiable presentation to his school - with the notion that his young children might value a videotape of the speech later on - might be a good idea.
On Friday, Prof Pausch, 47, died at his home in Chesapeake, Virginia.
His last lecture titled 'Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams' became an Internet hit. More than 6 million people have viewed highlights or the entirety of the 76-minute talk.
In April, based on the lecture, he published a book titled The Last Lecture and it leapt to the top of the non-fiction best-seller lists, where it remained this week. The book deal was reported to be worth more than US$6 million ($8.2m), reported AP.
Hyperion has 2.8 million copies of the book in print. It's being translated into more than a dozen languages.
What's so special about the lecture?
Prof Pausch talked about goals he had accomplished and those he had not, including becoming a professional football player.
IMAGES OF LIVER TUMOURS
His lecture began with him standing before a screen beaming down chilling CT images of the tumours in his liver under the title 'The Elephant in the Room'. He said he had recently been told he had no more than six months of good health left.
'I'm in really good shape. In fact, I am in better shape than most of you,' Prof Pausch said, dropping to the floor to do push-ups.
CNN reported that he used rejections he was handed when he applied for jobs at Disney to comment on the importance of persistence. 'The brick walls are there for a reason... to show us how badly we want something,' he said. 'Because the brick walls are there to stop the people who don't want it badly enough. They're there to stop the other people.'
Donning silly costume items like a vest with arrows sticking out of it and a Mad Hatter's hat, he described working with students as a way to help other people achieve their dreams.
He also played down his own importance, saying that after he got a PhD, his mother took to introducing him as 'a doctor, but not the kind who helps people'.
When he spoke, there was no million-dollar book deal and no promise of any sort of glory. He also spoke of death. 'If I don't seem as depressed or morose as I should be, sorry to disappoint you,' he said. 'If you have any herbal supplements or remedies, please stay away from me,' he said.
'I'm dying, and I'm having fun,' he said.
The Washington Post reported that he said he wasn't going to talk about things that were the most important - his wife, Jai, and children, Logan, Chloe and Dylan - but he would talk about making your childhood dreams come true.
That was the surface topic - stuff about how he wanted to be in zero gravity, play in the National Football League, write an article for the World Book Encyclopedia.
The underlying lesson, he said, was that if you live your life the right way, the dreams take care of themselves. Good conduct consisted of being earnest, honest, working hard and realising that brick walls in life are only there to separate those who really want to do something from those who just say they want to.
Do all that and 'the dreams come to you,' he said. The book was an afterthought.
Mr Jeffrey Zaslow, a Wall Street Journal columnist, attended the speech and wrote a column about it. It was a huge hit on the Journal's website, which led to television appearances for Prof Pausch and to much publishing buzz.
'It took him five weeks to make up his mind if he even wanted to do it,' Mr Zaslow told the Washington Post in a telephone interview.
The pair worked out the book during the course of 53 hour-long talks, conversing by phone while Prof Pausch cycled around his neighbourhood last winter to keep his strength up. Mr Zaslow put in Herculean hours and got the book out in April.
A professor of computer science, human-computer interaction and design, Prof Pausch was recognised as a pioneer of virtual reality research and became known on campus for his flamboyance and showmanship as a teacher and mentor.
Prof Pausch said he dictated the book to Mr Zaslow over the handphone, and Mr Zaslow recalled that he was 'strong and funny' during their collaboration. 'It was the most fun 53 days of my life because it was like a performance,' Mr Zaslow told AP. 'It was like getting 53 extra lectures.'
He recalled that Prof Pausch became emotional when they worked on the last chapter, though, because that to him was the 'end of the lecture, the book, his life.'
After his lecture last year, professional US football team the Pittsburgh Steelers invited him to take part in a practice, which was 'fantastic beyond my wildest dreams,' he told The New York Times.
GUEST SPOTS ON TV SHOWS
ProfPausch's message and story were so powerful they landed him on Oprah and other TV shows. He said he was embarrassed and flattered. But really, he said, the speech was for his three children.
Born in 1960, ProfPausch got his bachelor's degree in computer science from Brown University and his PhD from Carnegie Mellon. He taught at the University of Virginia from 1988 to 1997, when he came to Carnegie Mellon.
He co-founded Carnegie Mellon's Entertainment Technology Center, a master's programme for bringing artists and engineers together. He also created an animation-based teaching programme called Alice designed to teach computer programming to high school and college students.
Prof Pausch said of facing hardships head-on: 'I don't know how not to have fun,' he said. 'I'm dying and I'm having fun. And I'm going to keep having fun every day I have left.'
In a statement on Friday, his wife thanked those who sent messages of support and said her husband was proud that his lecture and book 'inspired parents to revisit their priorities, particularly their relationships with their children'.
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