Kim Peek, Megasavant passed in 2009
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Laurence Kim Peek was born on November 11, 1951 and passed December 19, 2009. He was an American savant and as such was known to an exceptional memory and recall despite having significant impairment in other areas of social functioning. This "megasavant" posessed exceptional intelligence despite concurrent developmental disability related to congenital brain abnormalities.
He was the inspiration for the character Raymond Babbitt in the 1988 movie Rain Man.
He was previously diagnosed as autistic but was ultimately believed to have FG syndrome, a rare X-linked genetic disorder whereby the person has a range of symptons such as developmental delay, diminished tonus which refers to low muscle tone, intellectual disability, chronic constipation, and excretory abnormalities.
It is primarily observed in male individuals and is associated with characteristic craniofacial features such as a prominent forehead and hypertelorism which refers to eye sockets which are widely spaced.
He was a cosmopolitan individual who grew to be at home in the public eye and was readily capable of displaying his prodigious memory and knowledge of that contained in the innumeral books he had read.
He resided with and was accompanied by his devoted father, Fran who tended to his every need during his lifetime in Murray, Utah.
They are interred together at Holladay Memorial Park in Holladay, Utah.
Rest in peace.