Randy Pausch

Jul 31 2008 by David Charters, Liverpool Daily Post

HIS going was different – almost like a Hollywood weepie without the violins, soft voices and squeezed hands.

But like the movies, it told of a brave man, who had taken advantage of that modern phenomenon of knowing, more or less, when you are going to die.

With this knowledge, Randolph (Randy) Frederick Pausch, a married father of three, delivered his “last lecture” to 450 students and colleagues at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh.

But it wasn’t on his subjects of computer science and human computer interaction.

Instead, Professor Pausch spoke with humour and compassion about his hopes and his dreams, what he had wanted as a little boy and what he had achieved as a grown-up.

Just a few days before, doctors had told him that the aggressive treatment, which he had undergone to combat pancreatic cancer, had failed. |t had spread. He would live for between three and six months.

So he decided to give his last lecture on September 18 2007 in a spirit of optimism – looking back on a life in which he had achieved much. Some of it was folk wisdom, reflecting on appearing on Star Trek or experiencing zero gravity.

But it was also deeply emotional in the American style.

Still appearing in good physical shape, Pausch was enthusiastically applauded onto the stage. “Make me earn it,” he said.

“You did,” they said. But some cried.

“There are so many things I want to tell my children... Dylan just turned six. Logan is three. Chloe is 18 months old. It pains me to think that they won't have a father. When I cry in the shower, a percentage of my sadness is, ‘I won’t, I won’t, I won’t’.

“But a bigger part of me grieves for them.”

A video was made of the 75-minute speech for his children. But a copy of it was posted on the internet site YouTube.

Journalists picked it up and, as a result, Pausch spent the rest of his life, which lasted longer than anticipated, as a celebrity, appearing in papers and on TV.

As a result of his lecture, Time magazine named him as one of the 100 most influential people in the world.

Maybe, he had also shown that technology had enabled him to leave part of his spirit on Earth.

Randy Pausch, scientist, born October 12, 1960; died July 25, 2008.