“Jessy, when she was first diagnosed [with autism], was considered extremely high functioning,” Paul Park said. “But not now. Williams is full of people who have been diagnosed as autistic, but they’re college students, or even college professors. The scale of it has really changed.”
“My mother was very proud of the fact that Jessy had a job, and then she started doing these paintings,” he continued. The mother of four children, including Paul and Jessy Park, Clara Claiborne Park wrote two memoirs (The Siege in 1967 and Exiting Nirvana in 2001) about Jessy Park’s experience with autism, which are now widely recognized “as an important and pioneering source of insight for autism advocates, mental health professionals and educators,” according to the College’s obituary for Clara Claiborne Park.