Back in May, I asked for prayers for Randy Pausch, the Carnegie Mellon professor who so bravely faced his battle with terminal pancreatic cancer. His book, The Last Lecture, has become a #1 bestseller, based on the farewell talk he gave his students. A video of that talk became a YouTube sensation, and it afford Pausch a level of celebrity that enabled him to use his last months of life to spread the word about pancreatic cancer, and the need for more research to find a cure.
I’ve been following his update page for a long time now, and these last couple of months, he’s barely had any entries at all. His last entry was in late June, when he said that they were going to pull back from the chemotherapy, which seemed to be causing him more harm than good at this point. His “box scores” tracking the cancer’s progress were grim. I knew it was only a matter of time, but the news that he had succumbed to his illness still surprised me. I had really hoped for a miracle.
My condolences go out to his wife, his 3 children, and the rest of his loving family. He accepted his cancer diagnosis with extraordinary calm, grace, and an unflagging drive to make the most of the time he had left.
Rest in peace, Randy. The world was a better place for your having been here.
Randy Pausch is known well to us in or from Pittsburgh. CMU is located right next to the University of Pittsburgh in the Oakland District.
Randy Pausch emodied everything good about the human equation. For all the fighting and turmoil in the world – how refreshing it was to know that there was a person with that outlook so close to us; and now how bittersweet that he is gone.
Randy once said, Living long won’t fight the Reaper, Living well will.
How profound and how true!
Your tribute to him shows that his short time on this earth will be remembered – not a wasted life – that’s for sure.
Sales of his book are likely to go through the roof now – and I like to think of it like this: How great that is! Why? Because for such a wonderful family man, his family will now be taken care of.
Thank you, Lisa, tragic loss but it’s nice to know we’ll remember him so well.
Thoughts today for his family.