NOTEWORTHY DEATHS

LITTLE ROCK — Last Lecture author, former columnist

Jeffrey Zaslow, 53, the best-selling author of The Last Lecture, co-written with Randy Pausch about a professor dying of cancer, and a recent book about former U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, died Friday in a car accident in northern Michigan.

The Detroit Free Press and other news organizations reported that Zaslow, who lived in West Bloomfield, Mich., lost control of his car and was hit by a truck on a snow-covered road.

In 2006, Zaslow was in the audience at his alma mater, Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, when Pausch delivered his “Last Lecture.” Pausch, a 45-year-old computer science professor, had recently learned that he had inoperable pancreatic cancer.

Zaslow wrote a well-received article for The Wall Street Journal, where he worked at the time, and later received a multi-million dollar contract to expand the story into a book, with Pausch’s help. The Last Lecture became a No. 1 bestseller in 2008.

Zaslow, who was born in Philadelphia, also wrote a book about Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, the US Airways pilot who landed an airliner on the Hudson River in New York. He was also a former Chicago Sun-Times columnist.

Last year, in Gabby: A Story of Courage and Hope, Zaslow chronicled the life and recovery of Giffords, who was shot in the head by an assailant in January 2011. He co-wrote the book with Giffords’ husband, astronaut Mark Kelly.

Zaslow’s other books included a story about childhood friends in Iowa and another about a bridal store in Michigan.

Survivors include Zaslow’s wife, Sherry Margolis, a Detroit news anchor; and three daughters.