Randy Pausch, RIP

Saturday, July 26, 2008

Randy Pausch, the professor at Carnegie-Mellon famous for his stirring "last lecture", has died. From his obituary in the Houston Chronicle, we see again that this was someone who knew how to live:

The book The Last Lecture leaped to the top of the nonfiction best-seller lists after its publication in April and remains there this week. The book deal was reported to be worth more than $6 million.

Pausch said he dictated the book to Zaslow by cell phone as he took his daily bike ride, and Zaslow recalled Friday 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," Zaslow said. "It was like getting 53 extra lectures." He recalled that 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." [bold added]
I knew the man only from that lecture, but I am richer for having met him even as briefly as that.

Thank you, Professor Pausch!

-- CAV

2 comments:

Valda Redfern said...

He was amazing. A few months ago I listened to his lecture on time management - which, as he said, was something of particular relevance to him, given his circumstances. He sure made the most of his time.

Gus Van Horn said...

"[He said it was] something of particular relevance to him."

And I'd wager he made you laugh when he said it, too.

Leonard Peikoff once said that, "Humor is the denial of metaphysical importance to that which you laugh at."

This man wasn't going to let the early end of his life get in the way of being the best possible father he could be. His humor demonstrated that on many levels.