Randy Pausch, a Carnegie Mellon University computer scientist whose "last lecture" about facing terminal cancer became an Internet sensation and a best-selling book, died Friday. He was 47.

Pausch died at his home in Virginia, university spokeswoman Anne Watzman said. Pausch and his family moved there last fall to be closer to his wife's relatives.

Pausch was diagnosed with incurable pancreatic cancer in September 2006. His popular last lecture at Carnegie Mellon in September 2007 garnered international attention and was viewed by millions on the Internet.

In it, Pausch celebrated living the life he had always dreamed of instead of concentrating on impending death.

"The lecture was for my kids, but if others are finding value in it, that is wonderful," Pausch wrote on his Web site. "But rest assured; I'm hardly unique."

The book "The Last Lecture," written with Jeffrey Zaslow, leaped to the top of the nonfiction best-seller lists after its publication in April and remains there this week. Pausch said he dictated the book to Zaslow, a Wall Street Journal writer, by cell phone. The book deal was reported to be worth more than $6 million.

At Carnegie Mellon, he was a professor of computer science, human-computer interaction and design, and was recognized as a pioneer of virtual reality research. On campus, he became known for his flamboyance and showmanship as a teacher and mentor.

The speech last fall was part of a series Carnegie Mellon called "The Last Lecture," where professors were asked to think about what matters to them most and give a hypothetical final talk. The name of the lecture series was changed to "Journeys" before Pausch spoke, something he joked about in his lecture.

"I thought, damn, I finally nailed the venue and they renamed it," he said.

He told the packed auditorium he fulfilled almost all his childhood dreams — being in zero gravity, writing an article in the World Book Encyclopedia and working with the Walt Disney Co.

The one that eluded him? Playing in the National Football League.

"If I don't seem as depressed or morose as I should be, sorry to disappoint you," Pausch said.

He then joked about his quirky hobby of winning stuffed animals at amusement parks — another of his childhood dreams — and how his mother introduced him to people to keep him humble: "This is my son, he's a doctor, but not the kind that helps people."

Pausch said he was embarrassed and flattered by the popularity of his message. Millions viewed the complete or abridged version of the lecture, titled "Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams," online.

Pausch lobbied Congress for more federal funding for pancreatic cancer research and appeared on "Oprah" and other TV shows. In what he called "a truly magical experience," he was even invited to appear as an extra in the new "Star Trek" movie.

He had one line of dialogue, got to keep his costume and donated his $217.06 paycheck to charity.

Pausch blogged regularly about his medical treatment. On Feb. 15, exactly six months after he was told he had three to six months of healthy living left, Pausch posted a photo of himself to show he was "still alive & healthy."

"I rode my bike today; the cumulative effects of the chemotherapy are hurting my stamina some, but I bet I can still run a quarter mile faster than most Americans," he wrote.

Pausch gave one more lecture after his Carnegie Mellon appearance — in November at the University of Virginia, where he had taught from 1988 to 1997.

Pausch often emphasized the need to have fun.

"I mean I don't know how to not have fun. I'm dying and I'm having fun. And I'm going to keep having fun every day I have left. Because there's no other way to play it," he said in his Carnegie Mellon lecture. "You just have to decide if you're a Tigger or an Eeyore. I think I'm clear where I stand on the great Tigger/Eeyore debate. Never lose the childlike wonder. It's just too important. It's what drives us."

Born in 1960, Pausch received his bachelor's degree in computer science from Brown University and his Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon.

He co-founded Carnegie Mellon's Entertainment Technology Center, a master's program for bringing artists and engineers together. The university named a footbridge in his honor. He also created an animation-based teaching program for high school and college students to have fun while learning computer programming.

In February, the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences in California announced the creation of the Dr. Randy Pausch Scholarship Fund for university students who pursue careers in game design, development and production.

He and his wife, Jai, had three children, Dylan, Logan and Chloe.

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On the Net:

Pausch's lecture: www.cmu.edu/randyslecture/


Article: HERE

           

            

            Fri Jul 25, 10:26 AM ET

This image provided by Hyperion Publishing shows the cover of Carnegie Mellon professor Randy Pausch's 'The Last Lecture', which is being published Tuesday, April 8, 2008 by Hyperion. Pausch, a Carnegie Mellon University computer scientist whose 'last lecture' about facing terminal cancer became an international sensation and a best-selling book, died Friday July 25, 2008. He was 47.

(AP Photo/Hyperion Publishing)



VIDEO

Carnegie Mellon Professor Randy Pausch (Oct. 23, 1960 - July 25, 2008) gave his last lecture at the university Sept. 18, 2007, before a packed McConomy Auditorium. In his moving presentation, "Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams," Pausch talked about his lessons learned and gave advice to students on how to achieve their own career and personal goals. For more, visit www.cmu.edu/randyslecture.


YouTube

But Randy Pausch's inspiring, upbeat and often humorous talk rapidly became an internet sensation. Video clips of his hour-long tour de force - punctuated by laughter, applause and ovations from the audience - have been viewed by more than six million people worldwide.

Now it turns out that the lecture will not be the final public words of the 47-year old academic, who is dying of pancreatic cancer. Hyperion, Walt Disney's publishing wing, is understood to have agreed a $6.75 million (£3.3 million) deal to publish "The Last Lecture" by Prof Pausch and Jeff Zaslow, the Wall Street Journal reporter who first brought the September address at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh to public attention.

The frenzied book auction was the talk of New York publishing circles last week. A deal for the British rights is close to completion and a Disney movie seems inevitable. Prof Pausch, a father of three children under six, modestly acknowledged to The Sunday Telegraph that the Last Lecture phenomenon had "taken me very much by surprise".

He set a positive tone when he declared that he had never felt physically better, and promptly dropped to the floor to do a series of double-and single-armed pushups, to an approving roar from his audience.

He then ran through his gamut of childhood dreams, from experiencing zero gravity and playing professional American football to winning stuffed animals in the amusement park and working as a Walt Disney "imaginer" (an "Imagination engineer"), and how he tried to achieve them.

When his sports coach gave him a tough time, he said, another teacher told him: "That's a good thing. When you're screwing up and nobody's saying anything to you anymore, that means they gave up." He commented: "That's a lesson that stuck with me my whole life. When you see yourself doing something badly and nobody's bothering to tell you anymore, that's a very bad place to be."

He also recounted the story of his rejection letter from Disney Imagineering after he applied for a job, armed with his newly-acquired PhD. "Remember, the brick walls are there for a reason," he said. "The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something."

And Prof Pausch, a world expert in videogames and virtual reality technology and creator of 'Alice', a ground-breaking software for creating 3-D animations, did indeed go to work on Disney projects including Pirates of the Caribbean.

He devoted the second chunk of the lecture to how he has helped other achieve their dreams - in his case as a professor, though the conclusions are supposed to be universal. And finally, he imparted the lessons he had learned in life from his parents, mentors, students and colleagues.

He praised his parents for allowing his young mind to run wild and allowing him to decorate his bedroom walls with mathematical notations. And he reeled off a series of mantras to live life by based on his experiences.

"Don't complain. Just work harder."

"Be good at something, it makes you valuable".

"Find the best in everybody. Everybody has a good side, just keep waiting it will come out".

"If you live your life the right way…the dreams will come to you."

Prof Pausch still struggles to explain why so many people had been excited by his lecture. "Obviously, the fact that I'm dying and leaving something for my kids that others are also viewing is fairly novel," he said. "And some people may be finding value in my giving old-fashioned advice in a way that doesn't strike people as 'old-fashioned'".

He was persuaded to go ahead with the book project by his wife, Jai, as it "would help draw out stuff that's in my head that will go away when I die. And she really wanted that stuff out where she and the kids could see it." He said the flood of emails from across the world had also won him around.

The book will, of course, help provide financial security for his young family - his boys, aged five and two, and one-year old daughter. But even more important for him is that they will learn more about his life and thoughts. And that was the point all along, as he told his riveted audience with his closing words. "The talk's not for you, it's for my kids. Thank you all, good night."



Telegraph.co.uk