Randy Pausch, 47; Professor Gave Inspiring 'Last Lecture'

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Inspirational 'Last Lecture' Professor Dies

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.

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Randolph Frederick Pausch was born in Baltimore on Oct. 23, 1960, and grew up in Columbia. His parents founded Up With Kids Inc., a group to help immigrant students learn English.

He was a 1978 graduate of Oakland Mills High School and graduated four years later from Brown University. After being rejected for graduate school at Carnegie Mellon, he was ultimately admitted and received a doctorate in computer science in 1988.

"My mother," he joked, "took great relish in introducing me as, 'This is my son. He's a doctor, but not the kind who helps people.' "

In 1988, Dr. Pausch joined the faculty of the University of Virginia, where he developed specialties in user interfaces, virtual reality, animation and storytelling. At Virginia, he devised the innovative software system called Alice to introduce young people, particularly girls, to programming. The system is used in more than 10 percent of the nation's colleges.

"Millions of kids are having fun while learning something hard," Dr. Pausch said in his lecture. "I can deal with that as a legacy."

He became known as a dynamic lecturer, once taking a sledgehammer to a VCR to make a point about user-friendly technology. As a classroom exercise, he sometimes required students to design video games without using sex or violence.

"You'd be amazed how many 19-year-old boys are completely out of ideas when you take those off the table," he said in "Last Lecture."

In 1995, Dr. Pausch took a six-month sabbatical to work at Disney's Imagineering Virtual Reality Studio, where he incorporated elements of virtual reality in the production of "Aladdin." Later, in accomplishing another childhood dream, he wrote the entry on virtual reality for the World Book Encyclopedia.

He moved to Carnegie Mellon in 1997 and helped establish the Entertainment Technology Center, one of the country's leading institutes of virtual reality and computer game study.

As his illness progressed, Dr. Pausch retreated from public view to write his book and spend time with his three children, now 6, 3 and 2. In March, he testified before a Senate subcommittee to advocate increased funding for research on pancreatic cancer, and he made a surprise appearance at Carnegie Mellon's commencement ceremony in May, speaking briefly to the graduating seniors.

Survivors include his wife, Jai Glasgow Pausch, and their children, Dylan, Logan and Chloe, all of Chesapeake; his mother, Virginia Pausch of Columbia; and a sister.

At the end of "Last Lecture," Dr. Pausch revealed that his talk wasn't intended for the people in his audience at Carnegie Mellon but was for his children to watch when they were older. His lecture, he said, was not about achieving dreams but about "how to lead your life" by approaching the world with childlike wonder.

"I am dying soon," he said, "and I am choosing to have fun today, tomorrow and every other day I have left."