A lasting legacy

Carnegie Mellon computer science professor Randy Pausch, who was diagnosed with terminal… Carnegie Mellon computer science professor Randy Pausch, who was diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer last year, has lived many of his childhood dreams in one way or another.

He wanted to experience the weightlessness of zero gravity, a feat he accomplished when he and his students earned a chance to go on the U.S. Air Force plane known as the “vomit comet,” which simulates the effects of a zero gravity environment.

He wanted to work for the Disney Co., a dream he fulfilled during a sabbatical with the company in which he helped to design the Pirates of the Caribbean and Magic Carpet virtual reality rides.

And while his dreams of playing in the NFL were sidetracked by a burgeoning career in computer science, he reflected on the importance of his high school football career, telling students, friends and colleagues during his now famous last lecture that he learned more from that experience than from all of the childhood dreams he did achieve.

Pausch recalled these dreams and several others during an inspirational final lecture to a packed Carnegie Mellon auditorium last September, just weeks after doctors had told him he had only six more months to live – a prognosis Pausch has proudly outlasted.

Since his final lecture, Pausch, his wife Jai and their children relocated to Virginia in order to be closer to his family, where he is spending time filming videos for his young children, who include Dylan, 6; Logan, 4; and Chloe, almost 2, in order to make sure they have a memory of him when they grow older.

In the time since his speech, Pausch has also found himself the subject of national media attention. Pausch, who has said that he “didn’t set out to tell the world how to live,” has inspired millions of others to live their lives to the fullest.

Today, Pausch’s last lecture has received more than 10 million Internet views, and he has appeared on Oprah and taped a one-hour special with Diane Sawyer that was broadcast last Wednesday. Pausch’s message even inspired the book “The Last Lecture,” co-written by Pausch and Jeff Zaslow, which tells the story behind his final lecture.

Pausch has also used his unexpected celebrity to draw attention to pancreatic cancer research, a cause that receives less than 2 percent of the $4.8 billion Congress appropriated for to the National Cancer Institute. Last month Pausch appeared before House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services and Education in order to ask Congress for more research funding for the disease, which has only a 5 percent five year survival rate – the highest death rate for any type of cancer.

Pausch has no doubt inspired millions of people to go for their dreams, and he has brought national attention to the cause of pancreatic cancer – a legacy for which he must be proud. But for Pausch, we suspect, the greatest legacy will be the one left on his children and loved ones.

And for that, we admire him even more.