I only met Kim Peek once in my life but it was a remarkable experience. Now he is gone and that is sad. He was an amazing man. He passed away last Saturday at the age of 58 of an apparent heart attack.
A savant is someone who exhibits extraordinary mental abilities. Kim Peek was known as a mega-savant because of his phenomenal knowledge in 15 extensive categories including history, literature, math, sports, classical music, and geography. He has read over 12,000 books and has 100% recall of everything he has ever read, seen or experienced. He was the inspiration for the movie “Rain Man” starring Dustin Hoffman and has been the subject of 22 documentaries and over 4,000 articles.
I met Kim and his wonderful father, Fran, several years ago when they came to speak to a youth group at my church. It was amazing to have the youth of our church ask Kim sports questions, history questions, music questions, math questions, geography questions and others and see Kim instantly come up with the answers. If you tell Kim the date you were born he will tell you what day of the week it was and what other historical events happened on that date and how many days you have until you can retire. What I enjoyed most about Kim was his dry wit. He had a unique sense of humor that got us all laughing.
What Kim taught me was the remarkable capacity of the human mind and brain. As has been proven by many scientists, the human brain collects and records everything we experience. It is in the retrieval where we struggle. For whatever reason, Kim’s brain was formed without the connecting tissue between the left and right hemispheres making him unable to filter the information stored in his brain. He had instant access to everything at anytime.
This is what gave Kim his amazing abilities but it also is what created limitations in other areas of his life. Without a way to filter the mass amount of information, Kim struggled with simple tasks like dressing himself or setting the dinner table. On many levels he still functioned as a child, needing adult help and supervision. His father, Fran, has been his constant companion throughout his life patiently helping him with his day-to-day tasks.
Kim will be greatly missed in this world. He was truly a wonderful, amazing and humble person. Fran has been a great example of a loving and caring father. Thank you for the memories and lessons learned from the both of you.
To learn more, watch this video, which is part one of a five part series. Truly amazing!