Randy Pausch died today.  He became famous over the past year after delivering his inspirational last lecture about “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams” at Carnegie Mellon shortly after learning that he had pancreatic cancer and only months to live.  My thoughts are with his family and friends.

Donations can be made to the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network, 2141 Rosecrans Ave., Suite 7000, El Segundo, CA 90245, or to Carnegie Mellon’s Randy Pausch Memorial Fund (www.cmu.edu/giving/pausch).

You can watch his “Last Lecture” here.

“We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand.”
-Randy Pausch

Carnegie Mellon Professor Randy Pausch, who is dying from pancreatic cancer, gave his last lecture at the university Sept. 18, 2007. He speaks about achieving your childhood dreams and enabling the dreams of others.

I’ll tell you what: he really nailed this lecture. If you haven’t already watched this, you should (and make your kids watch, too). What a great human being Professor Pausch is – my deepest sympathies to him and his family.

For more information on Randy Pausch, you can visit http://www.cmu.edu/randyslecture.

By the way, in this lecture, he jokingly mentions his two childhood dreams were playing in the NFL and being Captain Kirk on Star Trek. These dreams have since come true: He recently scrimmaged with the Pittsburgh Steelers and got to say a line in a new Star Trek film.

I wish you all the best, Professor Pausch.