Readers may recognize the name of Carnegie-Mellon University's Randy Pausch.
The computer science professor cofounded CMU's Entertainment Technology Center and directs the Alice software project, a free 3D graphics teaching tool for student programmers.
Pausch also has a design credit for Peacemaker, a highly-regarded serious game about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He has been referred to as a game education giant.
As reported by The Wall Street Journal Online, Pausch recently gave what was billed as his "Last Lecture." This is a common title for talks given at many colleges around the country. Basically, professors assume that they will be giving the last lecture of their lives and talk about whatever means the most to them.
His lecture, life and spirit are a true inspiration.