September 20, 2007

An Inspirational Professor's Final Lecture Reflects His Life and Legacy

The final lectures professors deliver before they retire are often moving occasions, but they’re nothing compared with the last lecture this week by Randy Pausch, a computer-science professor at Carnegie Mellon University. Mr. Pausch, a 46-year-old father of three, is dying of pancreatic cancer. He expects to live only a few months more. As described in a poignant article in today’s Wall Street Journal, Mr. Pausch gave his audience a “rollicking and riveting journey through the lessons of his life.” He also exhibited a mordant humor. “I’ve experienced a deathbed conversion,” he said with a smile. “I just bought a Macintosh.”

Mr. Pausch has long been a playful and inspiring figure on the Carnegie Mellon campus. He is someone who grew up wanting to design rides for Disney World, and he ended up doing exactly that in the mid-1990s, when he worked for the company’s “Imagineering” group during a sabbatical. When a Chronicle reporter visited him several years ago for an article, his office was full of toys, and he stayed long after the official interview was over, to demonstrate his favorite digital creations.

He is best known in the IT world for designing a free software system, Alice, that makes it easy for people to design interactive stories and games. Last year he persuaded executives at the video-game company Electronic Arts to let the Alice software use characters from a best-selling game, The Sims.

In 2004 he co-wrote an opinion piece in The Chronicle Review that argued for the use of video games — and a playful approach — in teaching. “Within the next 10 years we believe that the technologies and content developed at our center will allow professors to rethink the entire process of education, just as the introduction of the mass-produced textbook changed how earlier academics developed and presented information.” He has worked to make that vision a reality.

During his lecture this week, an excerpt of which is available online, he showed pictures of his childhood bedroom, which he decorated with equations and creative scrawlings, and said: “If your kids want to paint their bedrooms, as a favor to me, let ’em do it.” —Jeffrey R. Young and Andrew Mytelka

Comments

1. The entire lecture can be heard as well. Great human being, he will be missed.

   http://www.etc.cmu.edu/global_news/?q=node/42

   — Chris Golde    Sep 20, 04:26 PM    #

2. The webcast of his farewell speech was heartrending to watch. I’ve never seen such magnificent valor.

   — siegfried    Sep 20, 04:37 PM    #

3. Randy Pausch offers us all a reminder that how we respond to life is as important what we do in life. And life is best lived with a sense of humor, especially when it is aimed at oneself.

   God bless Prof. Pausch as he has blessed the students he has worked with during his too short career.

   — Rick    Sep 20, 04:59 PM    #

4. Marvelous and heartbreaking and inspiring. Thanks for sharing.

   — Deb    Sep 20, 05:58 PM    #

5. I’ve never, in 63 years, seen a person I wanted to be exactly like, until now! What a model for teachers! Thank you so much for sharing.

   — Jacque    Sep 23, 10:17 PM    #

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