by Margaret Chen, 26 July 2008

Professor Randy Pausch, aged 47, who was a tenured professor at Carnegie Mellon University in the U.S. succumbed to advanced pancreatic cancer yesterday at his home. May he rest in peace.

Besides having fulfilled nearly all of his childhood dreams, Prof. Pausch had some words of wisdom to share with his students and fellow professors about "living well versus living long". He was a professor who not only dared to dream, he was also - as he tells it, not one to be easily defeated, soldiering on by being earnest and honest and by always working hard...

IN a sense he was lucky to have known when to expect his death. He had the time to prepare for it; he left behind this video of his "last lecture" (filmed September 2007) and also a book, which offer words of wisdom from a man who could see "tomorrow" end...

He said, "THE BRICK WALLS are not there to keep us out, the brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something. The brick walls are there to stop the people who don't want it badly enough. The brick walls are there to stop 'the other people'".

This YOUtube video is more than an hour long, but it has been viewed more than three million times, a testament to Prof. Pausch's effectiveness as a well-loved teacher!

..... Stop here Please click here to read : DaisyC-18 on "The Last Lecture", published on 12 June 2009 GRADUATION and INSPIRATION ... by Chris Lau, published on 5 June 2009

For more about Professor Pausch, please visit the Carnegie Mellon U. website: http://www.cmu.edu/randyslecture/

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