Forest, Mississippi: The Mississippi man known as “Case 1,” the first person to be diagnosed with autism, has died.
Donald G. Triplett was the subject of a book titled In a Different Key, a PBS documentary film, BBC news magazine instalment and countless medical journal articles.
Don Triplett, the first person diagnosed with autism, has died at 89.
But to employees at the Bank of Forest, in a small city about 40 miles (64 kilometres) east of Jackson, he was simply “Don,” WLBT-TV reported.
Triplett died on Thursday, confirmed Lesa Davis, the bank’s senior vice president. He was 89.
Triplett worked for 65 years at the bank where his father Beamon Triplett was a primary shareholder.
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“Don was a remarkable individual,” CEO Allen Breland said of Triplett, who was known as a fiercely independent savant. “And he kept things interesting.”
Triplett, a 1958 graduate of Millsaps College, enjoyed golf and travel and was frequently flying to exotic locales, Breland said.
“He was in his own world, but if you gave him two, three-digit numbers, he could multiply them faster than you could get the answer on a calculator,” he told the television station.