Kim Peek - Autistic Man Who Inspired Rain Man Dies

Kim Peek, the world's most well known Autistic "Savant" and the inspiration for the Oscar winning Rain Man has died suddenly of a heart attack.

The Salt Lake City Tribune reports:

"He had a depth and breadth of knowledge and a memory that was just unbelievable," said Daniel Christensen, a professor with the University of Utah's Neuropsychiatric Institute. "He was unique. I don't know if there will ever be another person quite like Kim."

His father Fran Peek told the Tribune

"They told us we should institutionalize him because he would never walk or talk," Fran Peek said. "But we refused to do that."

By the time he was a toddler Kim Peek had amazing abilities including the ability to read and memorize vast volumes of data including Shakespeare and the Bible.

"An MRI later showed that his brain lacked a corpus callosum -- the connecting tissue between the left and right hemispheres. Peek said his son's brain lacked the normal filtering system for receiving information." 

Not only could he read vast amounts of information he could retain that information in a far greater capacity than the average person.

Kim Peek was 58. 

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