Randy Pausch, the professor whose frank and uplifting “Last Lecture” made him an unexpected public hero, has died at age 47.
Pausch was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2006 and told he had 3-6 months to live. Soon after, he gave a funny, heartfelt last lecture to students and faculty at Carnegie Mellon University, on the topic of achieving childhood dreams.
The remarkable talk made its way onto YouTube, and soon Pausch was being interviewed by Oprah and Diane Sawyer. Pausch beat the 6-month diagnosis handily, long enough to turn his lecture into a book that was published this April.
Here’s Pausch’s own page from Carnegie-Mellon. (Very slow right now). And here’s the original video, courtesy of YouTube.