Neal Rubin

Dying prof's last lecture hits home

The attention-getter with Jeffrey Zaslow's book will be the staggering multimillion-dollar advance, at least at first, but he trusts that the focus eventually will fall on the words.

That's not just pride of authorship. The words that inspired "The Last Lecture" and will serve as its foundation came from a college professor who might not live long enough to read it.

Zaslow lives in West Bloomfield and writes for the Wall Street Journal. The professor who inadvertently inspired Zaslow and untold millions of others is Randy Pausch of Carnegie Mellon University, who's been known for years as the best speaker in the computer science department.

Pausch says that's like being the tallest of the Seven Dwarfs, but -- continuing the theme -- he's selling himself short. His mesmerizing final lecture two months ago is already the stuff of legend, "Oprah" and more than 5,000 blogs, and Hyperion just paid a reported $6.7 million for the right to turn it into a book.

While the official announcement of the deal Monday will make Zaslow, 49, the gasp-inducing phenomenon of the publishing world, it does not put him in line for an immediate beachfront retirement. Pausch, 47, will share the proceeds, as will agents and various governmental agencies.

That still leaves Zaslow with quite a lot to be thankful for this season, starting with the fact that both he and Pausch showed up for their date with destiny in a 400-seat classroom at Zaslow's alma mater.

Impact is a surprise

Pausch's wife did not want him to give the lecture that changed his life, what little of it pancreatic cancer has left him with. They had just moved to Virginia to be closer to her family, and she strongly preferred that he unpack and romp a little with their kids.

Alerted by a colleague in Pittsburgh, Zaslow didn't commit to the five-hour drive until he made sure his daughter didn't need a ride home from school.

Neither had any notion that Pausch's speech and Zaslow's column about it would change outlooks, parental philosophies and bedrooms in India, South Africa and parts beyond. Pausch, in fact, lost a bet with someone who predicted an overflow crowd.

"Who wants to see a dying man?" he asked. "It's a beautiful warm day in September."

Pausch has never taken himself seriously, and he won't let anyone fawn over him now that he's been given a timeline that likely ends before Easter. The first time Zaslow phoned him, Pausch was driving, and Zaslow asked if he wanted to pull over so he wouldn't get into an accident.

"What difference would it make?" Pausch asked.

Earning his ovation

"Last lecture" has become an honored assignment on campuses. Imagine this was your final address, the more eloquent teachers are told, and go from there.

Pausch's condition made his talk unique, and he was greeted with a standing ovation that he immediately scuttled. "Make me earn it," he said -- and then he did.

Zaslow says it was like watching Michael Jordan hit a jump shot that clinched a championship, an almost poetic performance at exactly the right moment.

Pausch talked about achieving his childhood goals, which included designing rides for Disney, writing a World Book Encyclopedia entry and winning gigantic stuffed animals at carnivals.

He spoke of setbacks, explaining, "Brick walls are there for a reason. They let us prove how badly we want things." He thanked his mom and dad for letting him draw mathematical formulas on his bedroom walls and asked parents, "as a favor to me," to let other kids decorate at will.

"I've experienced a deathbed conversion," he said at one point. "I just bought a Macintosh." Later, he introduced his wife; it was her birthday, and he'd smuggled in a cake. It was that sort of hour, funny and touching and true, and that's the way Zaslow wrote the column.

A four-minute video accompanied Zaslow's piece online, and within days, it swept the globe. Pausch did a 10-minute version of his presentation on "Oprah." Some 300 students in India showed up for a screening of the full lecture -- it's at www.randypausch.com -- then demanded a repeat the next week.

Zaslow heard from thousands of people, many telling him how their children's walls have become canvases. And he heard from publishers.

Column inspired book

As it happens, Zaslow is already working on a book, "The Girls From Ames," inspired by one of his columns. That one has been put on hold so he can finish "The Last Lecture" in time for Pausch to read it.

Zaslow, who is married to WJBK-TV (Channel 2) anchor Sherry Margolis, says the torrent of responses stem from a literary perfect storm -- the appeal of Pausch, a self-effacing figure with three children ages 1 to 5; the reach and authority of the Journal; the accessibility of the video; and "the hunger people have for wisdom."

Pausch wavered before deciding to go ahead with the book.

In the end, the immortality of print won out over concern about the hours he'd spend helping to prepare it.

He's a showman -- to illustrate the notion that people hate machines they don't understand, he'd smash a VCR with a sledgehammer on the first day of class -- and the book is a potentially massive stage.

Zaslow will follow the structure of the lecture, filling in gaps, fleshing out stories and delving further into its conclusions and lessons. It should run about 150 pages -- on the short side, like Mitch Albom's "Tuesdays with Morrie."

Albom's story of his dying professor, Morrie Schwartz, has sold some 14 million copies worldwide since 1997.

Comparisons between the two books will be inevitable, especially given the presidential-size advance.

"The world will be losing somebody special when Randy goes," Zaslow says, and now it's up to him to preserve the memory.

It's an imposing responsibility, made even more daunting by the expectations and the tight deadline -- but he's learned a little something recently about brick walls.

Reach Neal Rubin at (313) 222-1874 or nrubin@detnews.com.