Acknowledgment ...

Almost a year ago, my friend Jeff Zaslow attended a lecture at his alma mater, Carnegie Mellon.

The lecture was given by Dr. Randy Pausch. Jeff was there to write about it for the Wall Street Journal.

You probably know the rest of the story: It was supposed to be a lecture for about 400. It's turned into a lecture for our time. Tens of millions of people have watched the lecture online. The publishing rights to The Last Lecture have been sold around the world. In this country, the book quickly went into multiple printings. Bookstores everywhere were sold out.

On the Acknowledgments page in the book, Randy wrote, "The full set of people I must thank will not fit on this page. Fortunately, web pages scroll ... ."

After the book's publication in April, Randy's health began to make more marked declines. He never finished his acknowledgments. He passed away on July 25, 2008.

But Jeff, Randy's co-author, and Jessica Hodgins, one of Randy's friends and colleagues, had had many conversations with him about who he'd like to thank, and together they wrote Randy's acknowledgments which are now posted here. Jeff's acknowledgments follow Randy's.

I'm very touched to be included.