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Cover design by Rain Saukas Print ISBN: 978-1-5107-0660-6 Ebook ISBN: 978-1-51070662-0 Printed in the United States of America To Robert and Evelyn Nunemaker, my parents CONTENTS Part 1: Temple 1 Temple’s Beginnings 2 Middle School and High School 3 Franklin Pierce College 4 Temple in the Seventies 5 Temple in the Eighties 6 Temple in the Nineties 7 Professor at Colorado State University Part II: Autism 8 Autism Advocate 9 Eustacia Cutler 10 Norm Ledgin 11 Connie Erbert 12 Steve Jobs and Three Remarkable Autistics 13 Two Severe Autistics Part III: Animals for Food 14 Creekstone Farms: The Model Slaughterhouse 15 Improving Animal Welfare 16 More About Animal Welfare Part IV: Autism and Animals 17 Do Animals Think? 18 Rabbits and Autism 19 Cats and Dogs and Autism 20 Horses and Autism Part V: Temple Now 21 HBO Movie 22 Autism Is a Family Disorder 23 Autism Is in Your Brain 24 Temple Grandin’s Legacy Endnotes Acknowledgments PART I TEMPLE CHAPTER 1 TEMPLE’S BEGINNINGS Temple Grandin flies all over the world—to countries as diverse as Germany, China, and Uruguay. Her awkward stride, Western outfits, and unforgettable voice make her easily recognizable. She’s renowned worldwide as a speaker, has written many books—two on the New York Times best-seller list—and has educated a new generation. This woman, who had to be taught how to talk, has given voice to two formerly voiceless groups: animals and people with autism. For those with autism who can talk, Temple has added greatly to our understanding of the condition. She’s also contributed a great deal to our understanding of animals. Her insights into animal awareness are fascinating and groundbreaking. Born with a disability severe enough that, had she been born into different circumstances, it would have required her to be institutionalized, Temple Grandin turned her disability into an asset. Her story is one of profound courage and determination. Temple Grandin came from remarkable stock on both sides of her family. Her paternal great-grandfather, John Livingston Grandin, made a fortune in oil, wheat, and the lumber business. His son, Temple’s paternal grandfather, was also named John Livingston Grandin. He married Isabel McCurdy and moved to Boston where they had three children: Isabella in 1908, Richard McCurdy in 1914, and John Livingston in 1918. The middle child, Richard (Dick) Grandin, was Temple’s father. On her mother’s side, Temple’s grandfather, John Coleman Purves, married Mary Temple Bradley. Their child and Temple’s mother, Anna Eustacia Purves, was born in September 1926. She was named after her maternal grandmother, yet was always called “Eustacia.” Temple’s grandmother Mary always focused on being social while her husband John was a busy engineer and aviation expert. Though they loved each other, in many ways they were hopelessly mismatched. During the 1930s, John and three other men invented an electrical coil that could sense direction through the earth’s magnetic north. The four men named it the “flux valve.” Later, the Army Air Corps called it “the automatic pilot” and flew their World War II planes by it. “After World War II, it took us all the way to the moon,” Eustacia later said. Documents concerning the invention are in the 1 Smithsonian. Both Grandfather Grandin and Grandfather Purves, though extremely intelligent, had social deficits. Little did they know how the genes of the four grandparents would collide in their granddaughter Temple. In June 1944, Eustacia met Dick Grandin at the Boston Cotillion. It was Dick Grandin’s thirtieth birthday and Eustacia was seventeen, only twenty-four hours out of a girls’ boarding school. Isabella Grandin arranged for her brother Dick, an officer in the tank corps, to accompany Eustacia. Her father had refused to escort his daughter. Dick and Eustacia made an enchanting couple. The next morning their photo graced the society page. Dick had graduated from Harvard, where he lived outside the dorms in a separate rented house with a manservant. One of his fellow clubmen was Johnny Roosevelt. Johnny invited them all to Sunday night supper at the White House where, Eustacia recalled, Mrs. Roosevelt scrambled eggs for them in a silver chafing dish brought in by the maid and lighted ceremoniously. After supper, 2 Gershwin played them “Rhapsody in Blue.” After Dick and Eustacia met came three days of telephone calls, flowers, and “girlfriend envy.” Dick then departed for duty overseas, where he announced by 3 mail that he planned to marry Eustacia. Dick fought in the Battle of the Bulge, a brutal, bloody battle. On December 16, 1944, in northern France the Germans, who by that time were losing the war, launched a desperate counterattack. Dick was a first lieutenant attached to a 4 reconnaissance group. War calls for courage, resourcefulness, and total obedience. Dick had an abundance of the first two, but lacked the third. The battle lasted three weeks. Of the 610,000 Americans involved in the battle, 89,000 were casualties, including 19,000 killed. It was the bloodiest battle 5 fought by the United States in World War II. Dick had lived a privileged life until now. He was appalled at the death and destruction. He was convinced that the colonel above him was causing many of the casualties with his orders. Dick chose to report the colonel to those in command, going over his commander’s head to do so. The higher-ups warned him that if he made an official charge, the colonel’s record would be kept “under wraps” and Dick