Randy Pausch, Inspiring Professor, author of The Last Lecture, dies

Randy Pausch, the charismatic young college professor who fought his battle with pancreatic cancer in a remarkable speech widely-known as the "Last Lecture," has died at the age of 47 on Friday Jul 25th 2008. Pausch is survived by his wife, three children, his mother and his sister.

In addition to being recognized as a pioneer in virtual reality research, he became widely known as a gifted teacher and a mentor to many. Millions of people saw his inspiring "Last Lecture". The video went viral and has been downloaded by over 10 million people.

But Pausch's message was mostly one of hope. Even while dying, he encouraged people to embrace their lives and enjoy the time that they have.

In the two years since he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, the Carnegie Mellon University professor became the public face of the illness and developed an affiliation with the El Segundo-based Pancreatic Cancer Action Network, the only such advocacy group in the country.

Also Google source says that Randy was quite close to many of the people who were working at Google. Also Google condolences to Randy and his family.











Source: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/07/goodbye-to-randy-pausch-great-teacher.html