Randy Pausch, 1960-2008

When Randy Pausch learned last year that he had pancreatic cancer, he gave a “farewell lecture” to Carnegie Mellon students, Jeffrey Zaslow wrote about it for the WSJ, the video of the lecture became an online hit, and pretty soon Pausch and Zaslow had a major book deal from Hyperion—then, when the book came out in April, it sold like crazy. (It’s still #2 on the NY Times hardcover advice list.)

From mediabistro.com’s TVNewser, we hear this morning of an ABC News report on Pausch’s death. Chris Ariens reports that ABC anchorwoman Diane Sawyer is preparing an hour-long show about Pausch to be broadcast Tuesday evening.

(photo of Pausch: Pam Panchak/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

Create a social media strategy, launch your campaign, and track the results in our Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting February 16. The online event and workshop will feature speakers including The Onion‘s Baratunde Thurston (left), Facebook’s Morin Oluwole, and bitly’s Tim Devane. Register now.