Randy Pausch, “Last Lecture” Professor, dies at 47
Randy Pausch, the Carnegie Mellon professor famous for his Last Lecture and for pancreatic cancer awareness, died today at 47.
If you’re not familiar with him, you should be. He gave us a lot.
I don’t know what to say except how odd it is to feel so very sad about someone I didn’t even know.
I know what you mean. I have his book, I’ve read most of it. I really liked so much of what he had to say. Yesterday I even thought, “I wonder how Randy is doing?” and today I heard he had died. Sad and surreal.
It is sad, and I grieve along with his family. Not because I know him or them but because I’ve been following his story for almost a year. He didn’t like this diagnosis and yet he remained positive about his life and the future lives of his family. I had originally come across his story when doing a search on pancreatic cancer which my mother died from just a year ago.
In fact, news of his death has me grieving my own mother again. That ongoing grief is the search that brought me here tonight. My uncle also died from this a year before my mother’s diagnosis.
I bought his book on a recent trip back home. It was not where my mother was buried but where she was born and raised. This news of Randy Pausch reminded me that I must complete paperwork as participation in a familial story, and read that book! I have listened to part of the lecture and realize how badly I need to move forward at this stage of life.
Thanks for letting me share.
Edits possible? I wrote ‘familial story’ but meant ‘family history’ of the cancer. 10% of those diagnosed with pancreatic cancer are alive 1 year later; only 5% are still alive 5 years later.