This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2009, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Originally published 1/17/2009

Screenwriter Barry Morrow's first encounter with Kim Peek was in a library where Morrow was attending a 1984 conference supporting those with mental disabilities.

"I heard this guttural sound of somebody who was concentrating hard or constipated," Morrow recalled. "There was this looming figure with his back to me, furiously paging through a book, and I said, 'Can I help you?' and this person said, 'I'm reading.' "

Kim Peek may have appeared retarded, but the Salt Lake City savant can read like no one else. Morrow would later discover that Peek can read a page held upside down to a mirror, and two different pages at once.

After that serendipitous encounter in Texas, Morrow wrote the screenplay to "Rain Man," the 1988 Oscar-winning film in which Dustin Hoffman plays a character inspired by Peek. To mark the film's 20th anniversary, celebrities, singers and disabled performers honored Morrow, Peek and Peek's father, Fran, Saturday in a packed auditorium at the Salt Lake City Public Library, where Kim, 57, is a frequent patron.

A savant has mental handicaps but extraordinary gifts of memory and recall. Peek has committed 9,000 books to memory, as well as so many gigabytes of facts that he is called Kim-puter and is the subject of MRI-based research.

In an earlier time, Peek may have languished in an institution, but as a public figure his story has opened the way society views disabilities. The Trauma Awareness and Treatment Center staged Saturday's event, which was hosted by musician and producer Steve Carnegie who is rebuilding his stage career after a 16-year struggle with mental illness.

Carnegie treated the audience to a video clip of Peek singing "Tie a Yellow Ribbon" with Tony Orlando on stage in Branson, Mo., and an appearance by bodybuilder Nick Scott, a one-time football player who lost the ability to walk in a 1998 car crash and regained it through sheer will.

"You are a huge inspiration to everybody," Scott told the Peeks after displaying his muscles and lifting himself from his wheelchair for an unaided stroll around the stage. "You guys are the pebbles you drop in the water that send out the ripples. Those ripples touch other people and inspire them."

Even an absent Mickey Rooney chimed in on his daughter Kelly's cell phone to praise Morrow's compassion and humanity. Rooney portrayed the late Bill Sackter, a mentally disabled man Morrow befriended and wrote a television movie about.

"You are a visionary filmmaker," he said. "I was deeply honored to be a part of the portrayal."

Fran Peek recalled how he and his son visited Hoffman after he was cast for "Rain Man," and the famous actor pulled Francis aside.

"He said, 'You have to promise me you'll take Kim out into the world,' and I said, 'He's been retarded for 37 years. He has no social skills. I can't put him on display,' " Fran said.

But Peek did bring his son out in public in a successful campaign in the late 1980s to convince lawmakers to require public education be provided for with those with special needs.

bmaffly@sltrib.com" Target="_BLANK">bmaffly@sltrib.com