This was an interesting person to read about because I've read books he co-authored but his name never stuck with me. He is a good lecturer himself and maybe his words take on more meaning with the end of his life in a tragic automobile accident.
Well: Remembering Jeffrey Zaslow - NYTimes.com
Life’s Frailty, and the Gestures That Go a Long Way
By TARA PARKER-POPE
Much of Jeffrey Zaslow’s writing centered on the theme of love.
Jeff had died in a car accident on snowy roads on his way to his Detroit-area home, returning from a book-signing event in northern Michigan.
“The Girls From Ames” became a best seller although many people know Jeff as co-author of “The Last Lecture,” with the Carnegie Mellon professor Randy Pausch, who delivered that now famous lecture after learning he had pancreatic cancer.
Mr. Zaslow was also co-author of memoirs with Gabrielle Giffords, the congresswoman from Arizona who was recovering from a gunshot wound to the head, and Chesley B. Sullenberger III, the pilot who safely ditched a damaged airliner on the Hudson River in 2009.
Despite the disparate subject matter, Mr. Zaslow noted that much of his writing centered on the theme of love, commitment and living in the moment.
“We don’t know what moment in our lives we’re going to be judged on; that’s true for all of us,” he said at a TED talk last year, explaining what he had learned from Captain Sullenberger. “We’ve got to be honorable, be moral; we’ve got to work our hardest.”
Despite his success as a memoir co-author, Jeff’s true labor of love was his latest book, “The Magic Room: A Story About the Love We Wish for Our Daughters.” Dedicated to his daughters, the book focused on a bridal shop in Fowler, Mich., as a way to tell a story of parents’ hopes and dreams.
In every conversation I had with Jeff and in much of his writing, he talked about how much he had learned about the frailty of life and the importance of never leaving important words unsaid.
“All of us should say ‘I love you’ to the people we care about,” Jeff said. “We should do it because you never know. I got about 1,000 e-mails from readers saying they were going to tell their children they loved them.
“What I like about my job is sometimes I’m just writing about the obvious. By doing that, you can touch a lot of people and tell them things that will change their lives, even if it’s something simple.”
by gsbureau on Feb 23, 2011
Jeffrey Zaslow* is a columnist for The Wall Street Journal and co-author of the current international bestseller The Last Lecture. *Jeffrey Zaslow is exclusive with Creative Artists Agency.
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ploaded by northwooduniversity on Jun 4, 2009
With an audience of over 1200 people, co-author of The Last Lecture, Zaslow's presentation captured the emotion of Randy Pausch's "Last Lecture."
ploaded by WSJDigitalNetwork on Jul 25, 2008
WSJ's Jeff Trachtenberg interviews Jeff Zaslow, who co-wrote "The Last Lecture" with Randy Pausch. Pausch passed away on July 25, 2008.
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