April 1 in A.A. History

In 1926, after three months of courtship, Clarence S. [near right, 1942] and Dorothy Wright [far right] got married.

In 1940, Lawrence “Larry” J. [left] of Houston, Texas wrote the A.A. prayer that was used to begin A.A. meetings in Texas for many years:

Our Father, we come to you as a friend.
You have said that, where two or three are gathered together in your name, there you will be in the midst. We believe you are here with us now.
We believe this is something you would have us do, and that it has your blessing.
We believe that you want us to be real partners with you in this business of living, accepting our full responsibility, and certain that the reward will be freedom, and growth, and happiness.
For this we are grateful.
We ask you, at all times, to guide us.
Help us daily to come closer to you, and grant us new ways of living our gratitude.

Amen.

In 1944, Marty M. [right, 1946] moved to New Haven, Connecticut, to establish the National Committee for Education on Alcoholism (NCEA), which initially had its office at Yale University. During this time, Marty stayed with the Jellineks and attended the Yale Summer School of Alcohol Studies, which had started the year before.

In 1945, [Easter Sunday] Knickerbocker Hospital [left, c. 1940] opened a small ward dedicated to the treatment of alcoholism, making it the first general hospital in New York City to have such a facility. This is significant because many general hospitals at that time would not admit alcoholics; instead, their doctors had to admit them under false diagnoses.

In 1950, The Saturday Evening Post published Jack Alexander’s “The Drunkard’s Best Friend” [right, p. 1], a follow-up to his article about A.A., “Alcoholics Anonymous: Freed Slaves of Drink, Now They Free Others,” which was published on 1 March 1941.

In 1966, Sister Ignatia [far left], born Mary Ignatia Gavin, died at the age of 77 at the motherhouse of the Sisters of Charity in Richfield, Ohio. While working with Dr. Bob S. [near left], she treated thousands of early A.A. members at St. Thomas Hospital in Akron, Ohio. She was buried in the motherhouse cemetery.

In 1970, A.A.’s General Service Office (G.S.O.) moved from 305 E. 45th St. to 468 Park Ave. S. (formerly 4th Ave.). Box 4-5-9 reported:

    A building between 31st and 32nd Streets, on the west side of Park Ave. South (formerly 4th Ave.), is the new home for G.S.O. and the Grapevine…
    To find us, look for 468 Park Ave. South here in New York City.…“Why the move? The two main rea­sons are: (1) to save money, and (2) to get more space.”

In 1984, Ron R. founded The Twelve Coconuts Group at Kapiolani Park [right: the Twelve Coconuts], Waikiki, Hawaii. He later recalled,

    For about three weeks I went all over town to different meetings with bookmarks that had the 11th Step Prayer on them, I had gotten them from a Catholic Book Store… [I wrote them] up with “New Meeting in Kapiolani Park, Mon. Wed. and Fridays at seven in the morning. April 1st. I did a lot of writing. The first meeting had 32 people.