By Matt Schudel
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Randy Pausch, a prominent computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon University who became an instant sensation far beyond the classroom last year when he delivered his inspiring "Last Lecture," knowing he had only months to live, died July 25 at his home in Chesapeake, Va. He was 47.
In 2006, Dr. Pausch, who grew up in Columbia, learned that he had pancreatic cancer. He had experimental treatments to stop the spread of the disease, but in August he was told nothing more could be done. On Sept. 18, at an auditorium on Carnegie Mellon's campus in Pittsburgh, he presented his famous lecture, which has since been viewed online by more than 10 million people and has become a bestselling book.
Dr. Pausch joked that the university's "Last Lecture" series -- in which professors imparted lessons from a lifetime of teaching and learning -- was a particularly apt title in his case. He opened his 76-minute talk with ominous images of his CAT scans, showing tumors on his liver. Doctors told him he had three to six months of good health left.
"That was a month ago," he said. "You do the math."
To prove he was otherwise in excellent condition, the trim Dr. Pausch snapped off several push-ups, clapping his hands together at the apex.
He said his lecture would not touch on his illness, his family or religion. Instead, he focused on his childhood dreams and how to help others achieve their dreams. Using humor and a slide show, he described his groundbreaking work in virtual reality and how he was able to accomplish his lifelong ambitions: to win stuffed animals at carnivals; to float in zero gravity; to work for the Disney team of "imagineers"; to write an entry for the World Book Encyclopedia; and -- the only dream he didn't fulfill -- to play in the NFL.
A Wall Street Journal reporter and Carnegie Mellon alumnus, Jeffrey Zaslow, was in the audience of more than 400 and wrote an article about the "Last Lecture."
"It was electric in that room," he told Britain's Independent newspaper in March. "I knew it affected everyone that was there. But I could not have foreseen what followed, even in my wildest dreams."
Dr. Pausch was named ABC News's Person of the Week, gave an abbreviated lecture on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" and spent a day in practice with the Pittsburgh Steelers, to achieve his final unmet goal.
Soon after delivering his lecture, Dr. Pausch moved to Chesapeake to be closer to his wife's family. He and Zaslow expanded the lecture into a book and sold the rights for $6.7 million. "The Last Lecture" is now a No. 1 bestseller.
In his amiable, often humorous lecture, Dr. Pausch praised the old-fashioned virtues of honesty, hard work and apologizing for one's mistakes.
"You get people to help you by telling the truth, by being earnest," he said. "I'll take an earnest person over a hip person every day because hip is short-term. Earnest is long-term."
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."