Darold A. Treffert, M.D.
Psychiatrist and savant-syndrome researcher; lifelong Fond du Lac
Net worth
$2 million
December 14, 2020
About
Darold A.
Treffert, M.D., was the Fond du Lac psychiatrist who spent fifty years studying savant syndrome and served as a script consultant on Rain Man. He liked to say he was born at St. Agnes Hospital—the same campus that later put his name on the Treffert Center.
Born at St. Agnes on March 12, 1933, he took a University of Wisconsin medical degree in 1958 and in 1962 built the child-adolescent unit at Winnebago Mental Health Institute, just up the lake. He was superintendent there from 1964 to 1979. That is where he met his first savants—islands of genius beside severe disability—and did not let go. He returned home to private practice, the county health-care center, and the alcoholism unit at St. Agnes, and he ran the State Medical Society and then its board.
In 1988 he consulted on Rain Man; Dustin Hoffman’s Raymond Babbitt is the popular memory, Kim Peek the friend Treffert actually studied. Extraordinary People (1989) went into ten languages; Islands of Genius (2010) took up acquired savant syndrome. Agnesian opened the Treffert Center on the St. Agnes campus in 2016. He died unexpectedly at eighty-seven on December 14, 2020, at home in Fond du Lac—the town he never really left.
Notable facts
He was born at St. Agnes Hospital in Fond du Lac on March 12, 1933, and died at home in the city on December 14, 2020.
As superintendent of Winnebago Mental Health Institute (1964–79) he began the savant research that defined his career.
He was a script consultant on the 1988 film Rain Man and later wrote Extraordinary People (1989) and Islands of Genius (2010).
What questions can this profile answer
- What makes Darold A. Treffert, M.D. notable?
- Darold A. Treffert, M.D., was the Fond du Lac psychiatrist who spent fifty years studying savant syndrome and served as a script consultant on Rain Man. He liked to say he was born at St. Agnes Hospital—the same campus that later put his name on the Treffert Center.
- What is Darold A. Treffert, M.D.'s estimated net worth?
- Darold A. Treffert, M.D.'s estimated net worth is $2 million as of 2020-12-14.