Randy Pausch was 47 years young. His courageous passing will be felt by people across the world. What an amazing man, what an amazing family. Randy was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2006, being told he had 3 to 6 months to live. He made every day count.
Randy Pausch’s Last Lecture at Carnegie Mellon University is legendary - worldwide. The video of The Last Lecture has been viewed by over 10 million people, and translated into 7 languages. This year after appearing on Oprah, Diane Sawyer, and many other interviews, a best selling book “The Last Lecture”, testifying before Congress in regards to Pancreatic Cancer, Randy has passed leaving us all feeling so blessed to have witnessed such Courage and Love.
In the news from The University of Virginia was a quote by Gabe Robins, professor of computer science at U.Va., has described Pausch as the perfect mentor - a combination of Yoda, Captain James T.Kirk, and Jim Carrey.
Randy was such an inspiration to me as a young faculty member and he became a good friend over the years,” said Robins. “The media portrayed this man exactly as he was — bright, honest and sincere. I feel lucky to count him among my friends and mentors. It is very rare to find a person that combines greatness, grace, and courage the way Randy does. I’m so glad that, through his lecture videos and recent book, the rest of the world got to know him too. Randy’s legacy will continue to inspire people for a long, long time to come.
Living in Courage sends love and condolences to Randy’s family - Jai, Dylan, Logan and Chloe.
I would like to thank everyone who left comments over the months here at Living in Courage for Randy and his family and those who continue to do so. We all hold a very special place in our hearts for a very courageous man and his wonderful family.
Everyone should have a day this perfect in their lives. Carnegie Mellon flew Jai and me up to Pittsburgh to attend graduation. I had the honor of giving the charge to the graduates at the end of the ceremony. Even the weather cooperated to make it a perfect day with the sun breaking through the rain clouds as the ceremony started. I also got to speak briefly to the SCS and ETC commencement ceremonies. It was wonderful to see all of our old friends and colleagues and I was very touched by the invitation.
My three minute address and dramatic ending —————->
Randy Pausch went to Congress to use his new found unintended celebrity that he received through the lecture at Carnegie Mellon University to speak on behalf of Pancreatic cancer. Randy urged Congress to provide funding for research to eradicate this most lethal cancer.
Dr. Randy Pausch was a professor at Carnegie Mellon University. Last September (2007) he gave his last lecture. This is a tradition among College Professors - giving your last lecture as though you were dying.The rub is, Dr Randy Pausch, is in all likelihood dying. He is battling pancreatic cancer. Diagnosed with the cancer on August 15, 2007 and given 3-6 months to live, today he is still going. Here is what he wrote on his own blog on February 15, 2008:
Feb 15: Six months later …. and still alive & healthy Today is a pretty important day. It was August 15th, 2007, when I was told I likely had “three to six months of good health left.”Today is six months from that day. Just to prove I’m still alive, here I am, holding today’s New York Times! 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.The doctors weren’t wrong; they always said that if the palliative chemo worked, I’d buy more time, but that it was a long shot. And the doctors have done a brilliant job of tweaking my regimen to help my odds. How much longer this will work is hard to know, but I’m going to keep having fun every day I have left, no matter how many or how few of them I get.
This is Randy on Oprah giving an abridged version of his “last lecture”. This is what we mean when we say courage.Read Randy’s blog here
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