Brown Club of Pittsburgh will honor Randy Pausch '82

Dear Brown Alumni, I'm sure that many of you have heard about the recent passing of a very inspirational Carnegie Mellon professor and Brown alum, Randy Pausch, class of 1982. Randy Pausch attended Brown as an undergraduate and concentrated in computer science. It was at Brown that he met one of his mentors, Professor Andy van Dam, who urged him to apply to graduate school at Carnegie Mellon, where he earned his Ph.D. in 1988. From 1988 to 1997 he served on the computer science faculty at the University of Virginia and took a sabbatical in 1995 to work at Walt Disney Imagineering's Virtual Reality Studio. After joining the Carnegie Mellon faculty in 1997, he co-founded the Entertainment Technology Center and created Alice, a way to teach computer programming through storytelling.

On September 18, 2007, only one month after doctors told him he had three-to-six months to live following a recurrence of pancreatic cancer, Randy Pausch delivered what came to be known as "The Last Lecture." His lecture, entitled "Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams," recounted his own efforts to achieve his childhood dreams and shared his insights on finding the good in other people, working hard to overcome obstacles and living generously. His talk also inspired a book version called "The Last Lecture." If you've not already seen his lecture on YouTube, I would encourage you to watch part, if not all of it. It's fantastic. You can find it at the following link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji5_MqicxSo

In his lecture, Randy Pausch presented the metaphor of a brick wall as a challenge to be overcome rather than as an obstacle to achieving your dreams. He explained, "The brick walls are there to show how badly we want something," and "Brick walls let us show our dedication."

Taking a cue from his lecture, the Brown Club of Pittsburgh has decided to honor Randy Pausch's dedication to teaching and his contributions to the field of computer science by donating a brick in the Alumni Walkway in the Maddock Alumni Center garden. The brick will say "Randy Pausch, Class of 1982," and will serve as a reminder not only of his philosophy of overcoming challenges but also of his role throughout his career of being a "pathway" to helping others achieve their dreams.

If you would like to make a personal donation in his memory, the family requests that donations be directed to the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network, 2141 Rosecrans Ave., Suite 7000, El Segundo, CA 90245, or to Carnegie Mellon's Randy Pausch Memorial Fund, which the university will use primarily to support continued work on the Alice project.

For more information about his life and legacy, see the article at
http://www.cmu.edu/homepage/beyond/2008/summer/an-enduring-legacy.shtml
or read In Memoriam: Randy Pausch, Innovative Computer Scientist at Carnegie Mellon, Launched Education Initiatives, Gained Worldwide Acclaim for Last Lecture.

Randy Pausch's ties to the Pittsburgh area and his service to students and faculty at Carnegie Mellon in Oakland make it all the more fitting and important that the Brown Club of Pittsburgh honor his memory. Randy Pausch got his start in computer science at Brown. His contributions to that field and his service to others should make us proud to be part of the alumni of Brown University. I hope that the brick in the Alumni Walkway will allow him, in a small but substantial way, to continue to be an inspiration to Brown students in the future.

Sincerely,
Jenny Mitnick
President
Brown Club of Pittsburgh

The following pictures were taken by Brown Club Board Members Stacey Ackerman-Alexeeff and Ben Mantell. The yellow arrow shows the placement of the brick in the Alumni Walkway in the Maddock Alumni Center garden. The brick reads, "Randy Pausch, Class of 1982".