Randy Pausch, noted CMU prof, succumbs to cancer

His "last lecture" helped to bootstrap me out of nearly a year of depression.<p>It is a sad day when a man who has helped, inspired, and driven so many to excellence passes from the world, for few men are capable of stepping up to shoulder the burden that Randy carried, and fewer still could do so with such cheerfulness, tenacity, and care.<p>He was a great man, and he will be missed by many.

"Brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to show how badly we want something. Because the brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t want something badly enough. They are there to keep out the other people."<p>What a metaphor for challenges in life that we pursue

Time Management: <a href="http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5784740380335567758" rel="nofollow">http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5784740380335567758</a><p>Last Lecture: <a href="http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5700431505846055184" rel="nofollow">http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5700431505846055184</a>

Having been lucky enough to hear Randy speak in person, I can earnestly say he was an inspirational and fearless person. When forced to confront his own mortality, he took the extraordinary and selfless step of teaching the rest of us what it means to live.<p>I hope that he continues to change us in the way he seemed to have wanted, and that our decisions in life will continue to benefit from the perspective he's provided.

My heart truly goes out to his family. I have to admit that even on the other side of the world, I was inspired by him.<p>The only time I saw one of his lectures was on youtube, I happened across it in the middle of the night one time, and I just had to finish it - I stayed up until 5am just to see what he had to say.<p>It was one of those moments that really makes you think about what we can really achieve when we put our minds to it.

"But we don't beat the Reaper by living longer. We beat the Reaper by living well," said Dr. Pausch.<p>Something to keep in mind.

His development on alice is an amazing tool to teach kids programming. <a href="http://www.alice.org/" rel="nofollow">http://www.alice.org/</a><p>Randy you rock, and always will.

:(<p>I'd been following Randy's story for a while now. He was constantly upbeat, still going strong two years after his doctor's initial "matter of months" prognosis.<p>As Randy's web page seems to be inundated, here's a page with links to various Pausch-related media, including his Last Lecture and Time Management talks, as well as various interviews:<p><a href="http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~robins/Randy/" rel="nofollow">http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~robins/Randy/</a>

It’s a sad day when anyone passes, but his inspirational "Last Lecture" if anything has taught me to celebrate life.

CMU's official page (of his lectures):<p><a href="http://www.cmu.edu/randyslecture/" rel="nofollow">http://www.cmu.edu/randyslecture/</a>

I think the email from CMU's president sums it up very well:<p>Dear Colleagues:<p>It is with great sadness that I inform you that our dear friend and colleague Randy Pausch passed away today, July 25, after a brave struggle against pancreatic cancer.<p>Randy captured the minds and hearts of millions worldwide with his Carnegie Mellon lecture, "Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams," and his book, "The Last Lecture."<p>Randy, who earned his doctorate from Carnegie Mellon in 1988, returned to the university in 1997 as an associate professor of human-computer interaction and computer science. Along with Carnegie Mellon Professor Don Marinelli, Randy was the co-founder of the Entertainment Technology Center, a leading interactive multimedia education and entertainment center.<p>At Carnegie Mellon, Randy was also the director of the Alice software project, a revolutionary way to teach computer programming. The interactive Alice program teaches computer programming by having kids make animated movies and games. A fitting legacy to Randy's life and work, Alice may in the future help to reverse the dramatic drop in the number of students majoring in computer science at colleges and universities. Randy was also known as a pioneer in the development of virtual reality, and he created the popular Building Virtual Worlds class.<p>An award-winning teacher and researcher, Randy was also a National Science Foundation Presidential Young Investigator and a Lilly Foundation Teaching Fellow. He used sabbatical leaves to work at Walt Disney Imagineering and Electronic Arts (EA), and he consulted with Google Inc. on user interface design. He is the author or co-author of five books and more than 70 articles.<p>Perhaps the greatest lesson, however, Randy taught us all was how to live, even in the face of great challenges, and how to follow our passion. While Randy's greatest passion was clearly his family, he did not shy from sharing his passion for his work as a professor, for his students, and for Carnegie Mellon. We will miss Randy, but we will carry the memory of him and all that he did to make Carnegie Mellon a better university and each of us who knew him a better person.<p>A memorial service for Randy will be scheduled at a later date.<p>Sincerely,<p>Jared L. Cohon

Very sad news, indeed.

RIP Randy. I know I will miss his fearless spirit.

Pray for his family and children especially.

I never really new about him until his last lecture was posted on google video. His speech is truly inspiring and it is very sad to hear of passing.<p>If you haven't seen that video you need to watch it. links are above.

Ah bugger. Really gutted to hear this. Loved the Last Lecture (book too). A real inspirational guy. Gotta feel for his family.

A loss for not only the realm of science, but the world as a whole - very inspirational man. Mr. Pausch will be missed.

An inspirational man. If he can deal with dying that well - we can all deal with living a little better.

This guy gave some of the best lectures I've ever watched. It is a sad day when someone like this dies.

professor pausch was a great man and i was deeply moved by watching his lectures and he will be missed. granted, i only knew anything about him because of his last lecture, but my life has been made richer because of the things that he has done. thank you, randy.

RIP

a real mensch.

It's unfortunate that he died but to be honest, I don't quite understand the appeal of Dr. Pausch.<p>All of the quotes attributed to him seem specious reasoning at best. "Beat the Reaper by living well?" I think "death" wins, always. "Brick walls" are just there. They don't have a purpose. Pontifications about the meaning of life? It looks like it doesn't really have one. Sort of like 'god', you can just make up what ever you want. What's his proof for any of what he's telling me?<p>Do we listen to this man because we feel sorry for him? because we're afraid of dying as well? The whole concept just seems like so much saccherine from a dying man. In 20 years no one will remember this book or him.<p>I remember seeing him on the Oprah show and starts spouting about how he's in oh-so-great shape. Then he starts doing push-ups to demonstrate. The whole display was pathetic and delusional. I'm thinking, "Dude, your dying! You're not in good health!"<p>The whole lecture just seems like a bunch of jibbersh from, unfortunately, a walking-dead man.