Each year as part of Parents and Family Weekend at Baylor University, a select group of Baylor faculty members are invited to deliver a “last lecture” — designed to be the lecture they would give concerning life and its lessons if they truly had one final opportunity to speak to an audience. On Oct. 12, 2012, such a “last lecture” was delivered in Bennett Auditorium by Dr. Thomas Hanks Jr., Professor of English and Master Teacher, and a member of the Baylor faculty in the College of Arts & Sciences since 1976. The following is Dr. Hanks’ text of his last lecture delivered that day.

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This is really my “Last Lecture” number two. That is, I was asked to give a “last lecture” at a University function a few years back, and I did. Now Pauline Minaar and her colleagues have asked me to give a “last lecture” to you folks, and thus the “number two.” This is not the same lecture, though. The other talk was about teaching, and when I gave it I had not had two experiences I’ve now had.

One of those experiences was watching a real “last lecture” by Dr. Randy Pausch, Professor of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pa. Dr. Pausch began feeling ill in 2006, was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in September 2007, and in August of 2007 his doctors told him that he had three to six months of good health left to him. About a month later, responding to an earlier request for a “last lecture” from the computer science department, Dr. Pausch gave what, unlike this talk, actually was a “last lecture.” The lecture was videotaped; it lasted just over an hour. Dr. Pausch outlined his diagnosis, prognosis, and probable date of death in his first 10 minutes — with illustrations and graphs — and then he basically dropped that topic and said something like, “Okay — you’ve met the elephant in the room. Now forget him. Here is my real topic.”

For the next 50 minutes, Dr. Pausch talked about “achieving your childhood dreams.” And what he said was, “DREAM BIG — and then LIVE YOUR DREAMS.”

Dr. Pausch’s personal history, from that first hour-plus speech, shows that he both dreamed and pursued his dreams. He says that his childhood dreams were many, but chief among them was to play in the NFL, to write an article for the World Book Encyclopedia, to be Captain Kirk, to win stuffed animals, and to be a Disney Imagineer.

Randy never played with the NFL; as he put it, “They wouldn’t even have noticed me when they ran over me.” He did work out with the Pittsburgh Steelers, though. He never became Captain Kirk. He did meet William Shatner, however. He wrote an article about virtual reality, and it went into the World Book Encyclopedia. He won LOTS of stuffed animals, and showed pictures of walking away from a carnival booth with huge bears in each arm.

And, he persuaded NASA to let him and some of his students experience zero gravity in the airplane NASA uses to train astronauts. He even became a Disney Imagineer and designed a Disney World virtual reality kingdom during a sabbatical. He turned down the job offer that followed, though: his passion was teaching. At Disney World in Orlando today you will find a little sign just past the Mad Tea Party: it says, “Be good at something, it makes you valuable…Have something to bring to the table, because that will make you more welcome.” It’s signed, “Randy Pausch.”

Dr. Pausch added to his last lecture a few months later, at the Carnegie Mellon graduation on May 18, 2008. One thing he said was a truism which you’ve heard before, but to which he gave new life: “It’s not the things we do in life that give us regret; it’s the things we don’t do.”

Dr. Pausch went on to tell a little story about a friend who learned that Randy had outlived his doctors’ prognosis by two months, and was still going about his daily life. The friend said, “Wow, so you’re really beating the Grim Reaper.” Dr. Pausch replied, “You don’t beat the Reaper; the Reaper will come for all of us. The question is, what do we do between the time we’re born and the time he shows up?”

The Reaper showed up for Randy Pausch two months and a week after that graduation, on July 25, 2008. He left a large monument behind him: his wife, Jai, and their three children Dylan, Logan and Chloe, now aged 9, 6 and 5, can attest to it. He left them the memory of his life, the film of his last lecture — which he meant for the children — and a life in which he followed his dreams, his passion. He was very clear about what he did before the Reaper swung the scythe.

Well — that’s where your sons and daughters are. For the past few months, or even for the past few years, your sons and daughters have been building foundations for what they’ll do between the time they were born and the time the Reaper comes for them. They don’t think of it that way, bless them — but that’s what they’re doing. What can I tell them that will help them?

Of course, one thing I would tell them is to watch Randy Pausch’s last lecture. The other thing I would tell them comes from that second experience a mentioned as I began talking with you.

That SECOND experience I’ve had since giving my first last lecture was reading Zorba the Greek by Nikos Kazantzakis, a great Greek novelist. The narrator of the book tells of an unusual Greek man named Zorba on the Island of Crete in the 1930s. The narrator of the book employs Zorba to be his mine foreman; he is fascinated by Zorba’s often wholly original approach to elements of life the narrator has taken from granted. One of them appears when Zorba and the narrator visit a much-honored very old man. The “boss,” as Zorba calls him, asks the old man how he remains so happy, since he is clearly very old and even infirm. The old man, smiling, says, “You see, I have for a very long time lived every day as if it were my last—and I want it to be a happy one.” Zorba immediately interrupts: “THAT’S WRONG! THAT’S WRONG!” he barks. “Boss, do what I do: live every day as if it were your first! And live it FULL!”

Now, after hearing Randy Pausch’s last lectures, and after reading Zorba’s advice, I actually have an idea about the last lecture I’d like to give at Baylor University. If I had the chance, I would like to say to your sons and daughters, “Live every day as if it were your first — and during that first day, DREAM BIG. Then go right on dreaming big each day, building in advance the monument you want to leave behind you.” And I would quote Randy Pausch in another few lines from that graduation speech:

“SEEK YOUR PASSION. DON’T GIVE UP. BECAUSE THEN YOU’RE JUST WAITING FOR THE REAPER.”

“YOU WILL NOT FIND THAT PASSION IN THINGS. YOU WILL NOT FIND THAT PASSION IN MONEY. BECAUSE THE MORE THINGS, AND THE MORE MONEY YOU HAVE, THE MORE YOU WILL JUST LOOK AROUND AND USE THAT AS THE METRIC, AND THERE WILL ALWAYS BE SOMEONE WITH MORE…YOUR PASSION MUST COME FROM THINGS THAT FUEL YOU FROM THE INSIDE.”

Let me tell you another story about a man who left a monument just as Randy Pausch did, though not so many people know of that monument. This man was postmaster in a small town in Missouri—Ozark, Mo. — during Herbert Hoover’s administration. Franklin Delano Roosevelt won the next national election, and this man became a past postmaster. He left the home farm to the care of his wife, son, and daughters, and became a telephone lineman, working for the telephone company of the time and riding a horse or walking alongside phone lines — you DO remember phone lines? People still call them landlines, I think — he walked alongside phone lines in southern Missouri, Oklahoma, Northern Texas, and part of New Mexico.

During that time of travels, his heart began to feel another passion. So he left the telephone company and attended the Southern Baptist Seminary in New Orleans for one year, and became what in Missouri we call a “corn-plantin’ preacher.” He worked the home farm for six days a week, and preached and visited his congregation on Sundays. Then a larger church called him — First Baptist Church of Ozark, Mo., with a membership of almost 200. He was called to other churches, then became a revival preacher — and, eventually, he became the Director of Missions for the Missouri Southern Baptist Convention.

When the Reaper came for him, he had retired years before, and had been preaching throughout his retirement until failing health sent him to an intensive care facility. The Reaper knocked on Jan. 4, 1986, to find that Bruce C. Maples was being cared for on his last day by Jackie, a woman who had come forward for baptism after Rev. Maples’ sermon some 12 or so years earlier. In some important ways, Jackie was — and is — a monument to Bruce Maples.

I didn’t know Bruce Maples throughout his entire life. When I did know him, he was obviously following his heart. I heard him in the pulpit many times; his preparation was obvious, his notes took up entire notebooks, and he always brought a three-point outline to the pulpit. But listening, I always knew he was preaching from the heart.

So, on the examples of these two men, I would tell my students what Randy Pausch and Bruce Maples lived:

“SEEK YOUR PASSION. DON’T GIVE UP. BECAUSE THEN YOU’RE JUST WAITING FOR THE REAPER.”

“DO NOT SEEK YOUR PASSION IN MONEY OR THINGS. SEEK THEM IN YOUR HEART, AND FOLLOW THEM WHEREVER THEY LEAD.

And in this, today’s “last lecture,” I would say to you — the parents and the grandparents of these young men and women — I would say to you, and I DO say to you, these young people look to you. If you follow your heart, and live each day like your first, they will learn from your example. Because what I say to them, last lecture or not, will never — NEVER — affect them as much as your life will. We are counseled, “Let your life so shine before men that they will glorify your Father in heaven.” Randy Pausch’s life SHINES. Bruce Maples’ life SHINES. If you follow YOUR heart — your life will shine, and your children’s lives will reflect your light back to you and out into the world. When the Reaper comes — he will see you multiplied, and he won’t be able to cut you off.

God bless you all.

—Dr. Tom Hanks