December 26 in A.A. History

In 1902, Clarence S. [near right] was born at 1280 E. 89th St., Cleveland, Ohio, to Charles [center right] and Jenny Patterson S. [far right]. It was a cold, gray winter morning, with snow and a brisk wind in the forecast. He was the youngest of three boys [left: S. family, c. 1907].
    On 11 February 1938, he would sober up in Akron, Ohio, and would have a falling out with his sponsor, Dr. Bob S., over efforts to enable Catholics to attend A.A. meetings. Catholic priests forbade parishioners from associating with the Oxford Group, with which Akron A.A. was deeply involved. When Dr. Bob refused to take action, Clarence started a new group in Cleveland on 11 May 1939, naming it the Alcoholics Anonymous Group after the newly published book. He sought publicity for A.A., resulting in rapid growth; invented the concept of sponsorship as we know it; distanced himself from the Oxford Group; focused on spirituality while avoiding religion; emphasized the use of the Big Book, Alcoholics Anonymous; and helped create the Cleveland Central Committee, which introduced the concept of rotation.
    However, Clarence’s youthful broadmindedness appeared to diminish over the years, leading him to become more rigid as he got older.

In 1940, The St. Louis Star–Times published a favorable article about A.A. with the headline, “Alcoholics Anonymous, Fraternity that Streamlined the Waterwagon, Has Formed a Group in St. Louis” [left].

In 2001, The Boston Globe published David Mehegan’s article “AA’s growing pains evident in revision of its Big Book” [right]. It noted that

    Until now, the Big Book had been revised only twice: in 1955 and 1976. Now the fourth edition is just off the press, and its painstaking revision is a window into the delicacy of tinkering with a book that many people revere as inspired scripture.…
    While there may be unanimity on the first 164 pages, there is none about the stories.…
    …in the [revision] committee, there was no consensus on the stories, which constitute 80 per-cent of the book. 
    So the committee decided to research [Bill] W――’s writings to find out his attitude toward the book—much as constitutional scholars dig into what James Madison or John Adams meant by “high crimes and misdemeanors.”
    They found, says Richard [the committee chair], that “Bill always saw the book as organic and dynamic, never locked in. The book was not for those of us who were already here. That was cold water for many. People who had been in AA for 30 years said, ‘But you can’t take out that story – it’s my favorite.’ But we had to say, ‘We don’t care. You’re sober now. We need to change it for the new people.’”

December 25 in A.A. History

In 1962, Paul H., Esq. [near right, 1956], 59, the last surviving member of a prominent Butte, Montana family, died of a heart attack in Memphis, Tennessee. He would be buried three days later in the family mausoleum in Butte [far right]. 
    His father, Daniel H. founded a department store bearing the family name in Butte [far left, 1901]. Paul was born in Butte, attended the University of Virginia, and was a Rhodes Scholar [right: The Kevin Review, Kevin, Montana, page 1 headline]. He studied at Oxford and became a lawyer. He had survived a botched frontal lobotomy in 1936, sobered up in Washington, D.C., in 1940, and in January 1948 dictated the first known account by Bill W. (from memory) of how he had written the Twelve Steps for the Big Book, Alcoholics Anonymous.

December 24 in A.A. History

In 1934, Bill W. met his first real prospect, Frederick Ernest B. [right, 1923], who would be known within A.A. circles as “the chemistry professor.” Since his discharge from Towns Hospital, Bill had been wandering the gutters of the Bowery, the “nut ward” at Bellevue Hospital, the corridors of fleabag hotels, and the detox unit at Towns Hospital, looking for alcoholics willing to try his approach to staying sober.
    Dr. Frederick E. Breithut was a prominent chemist, educator, and leader in 1920s America. He had served as president of the American Institute of Chemists from 1928 to 1932, headed Brooklyn College’s chemistry department, and contributed to the U.S. War Department’s Chemical Warfare Service as a Major during and after World War I (WWI).
    Amid disruptions to chemical supplies by Germany during the war, Dr. Breithut helped the U.S. achieve self-sufficiency in dyes, pharmaceuticals, and coal-tar products. In 1923, Commerce Secretary Herbert Hoover had appointed him as chemical trade commissioner to Germany; within months, he had sent a report on Swiss coal-tar statistics to Dr. Charles H. Herty, advisor to the Chemical Foundation. This report addressed critical U.S. dependencies on potash, nitrates, and synthetics.
    As president of the American Institute of Chemists (AIC), Dr. Breithut advocated for chemists’ licensing [left: The New York Times, 28 May 1928], better pay, and public recognition, including the awarding of the prestigious AIC Gold Medal [right] to:

	Mr. and Mrs. Francis P. Garvan, for establishing the Chemical Foundation [far left: headline, The New York Times, 29 May 1929, p. 3];  Mr. George Eastman, founder of Eastman Kodak and inventor of the roll-film camera [far right: headline, The New York Times, 17 February 1930, p. 12];  Mr. Andrew W. Mellon and Mr. Richard B. Mellon, founders, with their father, of Mellon Bank [near left: The New York Times, 24 Mar 1931, p. 19]; and  Dr. Charles H. Herty, president of the American Chemical Society, the Synthetic Organic Chemical Manufacturers’ Association and the Chemical Foundation [near right: The New York Times, 23 January 1932].

    He had shaped debates over professional standards while advocating for American chemical autonomy between WWI and WWII.
    At the same time, Dr. Breithut was involved in the founding of Brooklyn College [left: campus, 2016], New York City’s first public coeducational liberal arts college, in 1931. He had served as faculty chair of the organizing committee for the inauguration of Dr. William A. Boylan, the first prespresident of the college; planned and organized science curricula; headed the chemistry department; and chaired its building committee until “ill health” [right: letter, Dr. Boylan to Hon. Mark Eisner, 12 January 1937] led him to resign in 1937.

December 23 in A.A. History

In 1901, Bernard B. Smith [right, 1939] was born in the Bronx, New York, the third of four children of Isaac and Fannie Stuzen Smith, both Yiddish-speaking Russian immigrants. He would become a member of the Alcoholic Foundation Board in 1944, Chair of the Board of Trustees for the Alcoholic Foundation (renamed the General Service Board of Alcoholics Anonymous in 1954) from 1951–1956, and 1st Vice President of the General Service Board from 1956 until his death in late July 1970.

December 22 in A.A. History

In 1959, Frank Shaw, 73, died [right: obituary, The New York Times; funeral notice, The Bridgeport Post]. He had been an early supporter of Bill W.’s stock market theories, and married Elsie Valentine, a close childhood friend of Bill’s wife, Lois. 

In 2015, The Saturday Evening Post republished “Alcoholics Anonymous: Freed Slaves of Drink, Now They Free Others,” authored by Jack Alexander [left]. The republished version duplicated the original article [below left: 1st page] but included a note stating, “Jack Alexander introduced Alcoholics Anonymous to a national stage when this article was published on March 1, 1941.” Additionally, it featured an Editor’s Note:

    AA had its beginnings in 1935 when a doctor and a layman, both alcoholics, helped each other recover and then developed, with a third recovering alcoholic, the organization’s guiding principles. By 1941, the group had demonstrated greater success in helping alcoholics than any previous methods and had grown to about 2,000 members. But for most of North America, AA was still unknown. Following the March 1, 1941, publication of an article in The Saturday Evening Post describing AA’s extraordinary success, inquiries began to flood in, leaving the small staff of what was then a makeshift headquarters overwhelmed. Alcoholics Anonymous tripled in size in the next year and continued to grow exponentially. Today, 75 years later, AA claims 2 million members worldwide, 1.2 million of them in the U.S.…

December 21 in A.A. History

In 1981, United Press International published an article by Charles S. Taylor titled “First Year Crucial for Reformed Alcoholics” [left: from Dubois (PA) Courier Express, 30 Dec 1981, p. 8], reported on a study involving 439 alcoholics who were members of Alcoholics Anonymous and had been sober for at least one year. The study was conducted by Dr. LeClair Bissell [right], who, as President, led the American Society of Addiction Medicine^* and worked with alcoholics at Edgehill Newport [left], a treatment center in Newport, Rhode Island. 
    The article described the research as “the first long-term study of a large group of alcoholics” and noted it had “reached an encouraging conclusion—most chronic drinkers who can stay off booze for one year have a good chance at continued sobriety.” Dr. Bissell said that alcoholics who receive counseling for their problem and abstain for a year usually don’t touch alcohol again for up to seven years. She also observed that abstinence seems to help alcoholics stop smoking, reduce suicidal behavior, reduce encounters with the police and significantly lower hospitalizations for any reason. Dr. Bissell strongly criticized psychologists who try to return recovered alcoholics to “social drinking,” saying, “I think they’re killing a lot of people by encouraging them to return to drinking.”
    Dr. Bissell was also a member of the Carter Mental Health Commission’s Task Force on Alcoholism, founder of International Pharmacists Anonymous [right: logo], and co-author of The Cat Who Drank Too Much (1982) [left: cover].

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^*Misnamed as "American Society on Alcoholism" in the article.

December 20 in A.A. History

In 1849, Ella A. Brock [right], Bill W.’s maternal grandmother, was born to John and Nancy Bowen Brock, in East Dorset, Vermont. She and her husband, Gardner F. Griffith, would raise Bill from the age of about 10.

In 1945, Rowland Hazard III [left], 64, died of a coronary occlusion (heart blockage) while working in his office at Bristol Manufacturing [right: obituary, The New York Times, 22 Dec 1945]. Rowland had carried the spiritual message of the Oxford Group to Ebby T., who then passed it on to Bill W. His position as a top executive of a major corporation at the time of his death suggests that Rowland had managed to stop drinking again, despite several known relapses. However, some historians question whether he was truly sober at the time of his death.
    He had remained active in the Oxford Group and continued his involvement after it was renamed Moral Re-Armament (MRA) in 1938. Some early A.A. members recalled knowing Rowland from his occasional visits to the old 24th Street Clubhouse, which A.A. members had established in June 1940 in a former stable at 334½ West 24th Street in Manhattan. However, there is no evidence that Rowland ever joined A.A. or considered himself a member.