Randy Pausch Named 'Most Inspiring Person of the Year'
Randy Pausch, the Carnegie Mellon University professor who touched millions around the world with his famous "last lecture," was named the "Most Inspiring Person of the Year" by the editors and visitors of the popular multi-faith spirituality website Beliefnet.com.
"Our community and our editors were presented with a tough choice," expressed the editors of Beliefnet.
For the past nine years, Beliefnet has recognized ten people whose outstanding humanitarian actions have inspired and encouraged all people to live better lives. And each year, the ten are voted upon by the online community.
Get Our Latest News for FREE
On the last day of this year's voting, three stood out – Christian music star Steven Curtis Chapman, the Boy Scouts of Nebraska and Iowa, and Prof. Randy Pausch. In the end, the editors selected Pausch, who, facing imminent death from pancreatic cancer, delivered a "last lecture" that inspired millions of people to live every day more consciously and achieve their dreams.
"Pausch was selected because of his huge, far-reaching impact and because even after his death he continues to inspire legions of viewers," the editors explained. "He reached more people than he ever dreamed of."
Pausch's message was simple yet powerful – "We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand."
At the age of 46, Pausch was diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer and given a prognosis of a few months to live. Though the news was devastating for the father of four, Pausch responded with inspiring, even unnerving optimism.
In his famous "last lecture" on Sept. 18, 2007, Pausch was upbeat and humorous, alternating between wisecracks, offering inspirational life lessons, and even performing push-ups on stage. He encouraged people to live life seizing each day, to keep reaching for their childhood dreams, and to never underestimate the importance of having fun.
Though his lecture would eventually make its way to YouTube, national television stations, and in websites around the world, Pausch often noted that his main motive behind delivering the lecture was to leave behind something for his three children to remember him by.
"Under the ruse of giving an academic lecture, I was trying to put myself in a bottle that would one day wash up on the beach for my children," he wrote in the introduction of his best-selling book, also titled The Last Lecture.
Still, his message was viewed over a million times in the first month after its delivery and reached almost 20 million people by 2008, inspiring legions of viewers from all faiths and even of none.
"I doubt anyone could watch Randy Pausch's 'last lecture' and not be moved and indeed, changed, by it," commented prominent evangelical Dr. Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention following Pausch's death on July 25, 2008.
Though Pausch was a Unitarian Universalist, Land readily acknowledged how the Carnegie Mellon professor's message had inspired even him.
"Why did Randy touch so many people? His example illustrated to all of us the transitory, even ephemeral nature of our earthly existence," Land stated.
"I know it has inspired me, among other things, to take delight in the present, to enjoy 'little things' more and to cherish every moment with loved ones."
Since Pausch's death this past summer, Carnegie Mellon has created a memorial scholarship for women in computer science, in recognition of the professor's support and mentoring of women in Computer Science and Engineering.
Pausch is survived by his wife, Jai, and their three children – Dylan, Logan and Chloe.
