Donald Triplett, a savant who was the first person to be diagnosed with autism, has died at age 89

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Donald Triplett, the first person diagnosed with autism, died Thursday at age 89.

Triplett was diagnosed as a child by Johns Hopkins psychiatrist Leo Kanner. Triplett, known as “Case 1”, had an excellent memory and the ability to recite music, but was withdrawn from society and developed an eating disorder.

Kanner began seeing Triplett in 1938, when he was 5 years old. Triplett was featured prominently in Kenner’s 1943 paper, “Autistic Disturbances of Affective Contact.”

Triplett worked at the Bank of Forest, where his father Beamon was a major shareholder, for 65 years. A native of Mississippi, he graduated from Millsaps College in 1958.

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Donald Triplett was the first person diagnosed with autism. (Courtesy In Another Key)

“Don is a remarkable individual,” CEO Allen Breland told WLBT. “And it keeps things interesting.”

Triplett is also a savant with unusual mathematical skills. He has been widely studied in publications ranging from medical journals to a book called “In a Different Key”.

“He’s in his own world, but if you give him two, three-digit numbers, he can multiply them faster than you can get the answer on a calculator,” Breland explained.

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This photo provided by WLBV-TV shows Donald Triplett, the Mississippi man known to the world as “Case 1,” the first person to be diagnosed with autism. Triplett died on Thursday, June 15, 2023. He was 89 years old. (AP Photo/WLBV-TV)

Triplett’s special interests included golf and travel, and he often visited “strange places”, according to Breland.

Triplett’s nephew Oliver told The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate that his uncle’s legacy gives parents of autistic children hope.

“They see Don and a community that embraces him,” Oliver explained. “All in all, Forest has strengthened her and accepted her. It gives hope to people who have children on different levels of the spectrum that their children will live happy and full lives.”

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The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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