The memorial inside Magic Kingdom

Thousands of guests walk past this sign and set of teacups near the Mad Hatter's Tea Cups in Magic Kingdom without reading it, and without realizing they're walking past a memorial.

Be good at something, it makes you valuable… have something to bring to the table, because that will make you more welcome. —Randy Pausch

Randy Pausch founded the Entertainment Technology Center (ETC) at Carnegie-Mellon University, one of the first college programs of its kind to integrate computers and computer-generated interactivity into the worlds of animation and entertainment. He spent a sabbatical from the University of Virginia as a Walt Disney Imagineer, consulting on human-computer interaction and design, and is the founder of the Alice software project, created to provide an easy entry point into the world of computer animation and 3D modeling.

In 2007, Pausch delivered a lecture entitled "Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams" as part of a "Journeys" lecture series at Carnegie-Mellon that asked top academics the question, "What wisdom would you try to impart to the world if you knew it was your last chance?" The fact that the series was formerly called "Last Lecture" was not lost—Pausch had just been diagnosed with terminal prostate cancer and was given "six months of good health left," and in a sense this would indeed be his "last lecture." In it he speaks about his childhood dreams and how they came true, sometimes in ways that were unexpected.

Pausch's lecture became the basis for the book The Last Lecture published by Hyperion (a publishing arm of The Walt Disney Company).

Pausch died from prostate cancer on July 25, 2008, at the age of 47. On February 4, 2009, The Walt Disney Company dedicated the plaque near the "Mad Hatter's Tea Party" attraction with a quote from the lecture. His widow, Jai, published a memoir in 2012, Dream New Dreams: Reimagining My Life After Loss, recounting her husband's life and her time as his caretaker in his final days.