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At the Mexico City Olympics in 1968, Bob Beamon set such a record in long jump, leaping nearly 2 feet beyond the previous world’s best.

Beamon Triplett had a reputation for detail and intensity — he had been through two mental breakdowns — and he mailed Kanner 33 pages of notes on his boy’s mannerisms and life history, including that Donald could “hum and sing many tunes accurately” at 1 year old and would sometimes have emotional breakdowns if his activities were interfered with, according to Kanner’s seminal paper, published in 1943, “Autistic disturbances of affective contact.”

He was born Donald Gray Triplett on 8 September 1933 to Mary and Beamon Triplett, a wealthy couple.

That paper — along with copious notes taken by Beamon Triplett describing his son’s condition to Dr. Kanner — became the foundation of what is known today as autism spectrum disorder.

Triplett worked for 65 years at the bank where his father Beamon Triplett was a primary shareholder.