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CMU Professor Remembered 1 Year After Death

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Jul 26, 2009 10:41 pm US/Eastern

CMU Professor Remembered 1 Year After Death

Reporting
Trina Orlando
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) ― It's been one year since the death of a Carnegie Mellon University professor whose outlook on life inspired the world.

Randy Pausch died on July 25, 2008. He was 47.

"He was a charming person," said Cleah Schlueter, a close friend and colleague of Pausch. "But he was very direct and he always told the truth."

Schleuter says she'll never forget the day she met Pausch when the two were both working at Carnegie Mellon. She joked that she had applied for a job to work for Pausch, but he didn't hire her. Still, the two became close friends.

Schleuter says she was devastated when she learned in 2006 that Pausch had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, a terminal illness, and given just months to live.

"It was very difficult for me to understand how this could happen to somebody who was such a great person," Schlueter said.

Pausch made the most of his final months.

In 2007, he gave a speech at Carnegie Mellon known as "The Last Lecture." It included some push-ups and important life lessons. It was met with a standing ovation.

"He was surprised because he said, 'No one's going to come to this,' and I said, 'Yeah right,'" said Schlueter.

The two bet $50. Schlueter won the bet and Paush's " The Last Lecture" got more attention than either of them ever could have imagined.

It was viewed by millions of people on YouTube. And the book he co-authored, with the same theme, became a New York Times best-seller.

"His book is about life," Schlueter said. "And about how they should cherish life and about how they should live."

Schlueter says Pausch's wife, Jai, and their three children are doing well and trying to move on. They now live in Virginia where Pausch's wife is using her time to raise money for research into pancreatic cancer.

(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

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