Job Is Reward for Autistic Man Who Struggled to Live Independently : Challenge: Mark McKinzie--recently named Employee of the Year by Board of Supervisors--says struggle to become part of mainstream has been ‘hard, hard, hard.’

His boss describes Mark McKinzie as a dedicated and productive engineering draftsman who tackles the kinds of jobs that challenge people with 10 times his experience.

In fact, McKinzie recently was named Employee of the Year by the Orange County Board of Supervisors, and his boss, Jim Ostovani, Employer of the Year for having hired him.

But about 30 years ago, when McKinzie was a toddler, doctors said he was mentally retarded and recommended that he be committed to a state hospital.

“We went up and looked at the hospital, but I knew there was an intelligence in Mark,” his mother, Jean McKinzie, said. “I just couldn’t put him in a state institution.”

Indeed, later tests showed that the boy suffered from autism, a neuro-psychological condition of unknown origin that affects behavior, communication and the senses.

In fact, he showed the classic signs associated with autism, Jean McKinzie said. He did not want to be held, he wouldn’t look anyone in the eye, he didn’t speak.

But he had his own talents, she said. One morning when Mark was about 4 years old, she awoke later than usual to find that he had removed the doors to all her kitchen cabinets, along with the screws and hinges, and had neatly stacked each in a separate pile.

“That just showed me there was more to Mark than we knew,” Jean McKinzie said.

Because she believed in her son’s ability to reason, McKinzie said, he was never coddled and was always expected to do as much for himself as he could.

“When we went to baseball games and he wanted a hot dog, I made him go get it himself. People used to look at me like I was crazy because it was obvious when he was little that here was something wrong with him. But he always came back with a hot dog. I don’t know how, but he did,” she said.

Forcing her son to live as independently from his parents as possible is probably the reason he is able to live alone today, she says. Now 34, he lives in a condominium next door to his mother in Cypress. He drives his own car, keeps his place clean and pays his own bills, Jean McKinzie said.

His struggle to become a part of the mainstream, Mark McKinzie said, has been “hard, hard, hard.”

Bernard Rimland, founder of the San Diego-based Autism Society of America and a leading research psychologist specializing in autism, said Jean McKinzie’s insistence on her son’s being independent was “exactly right.”

Autism strikes about four of every 10,000 children born in this country, Rimland said. The cause is unknown, but “we now know it has a biological base. There are a lot of different possibilities: chemical pollution, for instance, is one area being researched.” Most autistic adults live in institutions, he said.

One of the main characteristics of autism is the individual’s inability to empathize with others.

“They are self-centered in that they cannot put themselves in the point of view of the other person,” Rimland said. “Unfortunately, many autistic people are not challenged to move out of their own little worlds.”

Mark McKinzie’s story is different.

When he reached his teens, he began running and was selected to compete in the Special Olympics. His success in sports made him want to attend a high school with a track team. His mother enrolled him at Savanna High School in Anaheim, where he ran on the cross-country team for three years, eventually being voted Most Valuable Runner.

When he graduated in 1976, he enrolled at Cypress College so that he could continue running and taking art courses. In 1979, he ran in the Boston Marathon, finishing in less than four hours. He eventually was recruited by Cal State Long Beach for its cross-country team.

But the coach there “didn’t know Mark was autistic,” his mother said. “After a couple of meetings, he called me and said, ‘Do you know Mark really doesn’t speak?’ ” she said, chuckling at the memory.

Undaunted, the coach took Mark McKinzie under his wing, encouraging him to enroll in a drafting class because of his art experience at Cypress. After two years, McKinzie dropped the track team to devote more time to academics. With the help of tutors, he graduated in 1983 with a bachelor’s degree in industrial arts.

Although his communications skills are limited and his speech is slurred and difficult to understand, he landed a job at Hughes Aircraft in Fullerton as a draftsman. But two years later he was laid off when the company made staffing cuts.

His mother, who owns an employment agency, found him a job in a company mail room, but Mark McKinzie told his mother he wanted more challenging work. “He’d come home and say, ‘Mom, I’m smart, I’ve got a college degree.’ He was also ridiculed there by the guys in the warehouse,” she said.

Eventually, Mark McKinzie was fired from that job, and he remained unemployed until last December, when Ostovani advertised for a draftsman.

“He brought some of his work but didn’t answer any of my questions,” Ostovani said. “He could not communicate. I looked at the resume and could see that he was a motivated person.”

After struggling with the interview for about half an hour, Mark McKinzie realized that he was not getting anywhere and got up to leave.

“He looked frustrated, and as he shook my hand he said, ‘But I’m a hard worker, and I haven’t had a job in five years.’ ”

Ostovani decided to take a chance.

For Mark McKinzie, the job has meant being a part of society.

“It’s fun,” he said with a smile. “I’m a part,” he said, gesturing toward his co-workers before turning back to his computer.