Randy Pausch, the Carnegie Mellon computer science professor who after being diagnosed with incurable cancer devised a last lecture that became an Internet sensation and bestselling book, and a celebration of a life spent achieving his dreams has died of pancreatic cancer. He was 47.

Last September, Dr. Pausch addressed a crowd of about 400 faculty and students at Carnegie Mellon as part of the school’s “Last Lecture” series. In the talks, professors typically talk about issues that matter most to them. Dr. Pausch opened his talk with the news that he had terminal cancer and proceeded to deliver an uplifting, funny talk about his own childhood dreams and how to help his children and others achieve their own goals in life. He learned he had pancreatic cancer in September, 2006.

“I didn’t set out to tell the world about how to live their life,’’ he said. Oprah invited him on her show where he gave an abridged version of his lecture. He then put his lecture in a book which was published in April and leaped to the top of the nonfiction best-seller lists, where it remained this week. An internet version of his video has had over 10 million hits and its really worth watching.

The book is well worth reading too and although obviously somewhat a tear-jerker, it gave me a lot to think about.

Randy Pausch Family