August 16 in A.A. History

In 1939 [Aug 18?], Dr. Robert “Bob” S. [right] and Sister Ignatia [left] (née Bridget Della Mary Gavin) facilitated the first admission of an alcoholic to St. Thomas Hospital [below right] in Akron, Ohio, using Dr. Bob’s diagnostic guise of “acute gastritis.”

     At that time, alcoholism was viewed as a moral failing rather than a disease, leading hospitals to generally deny admission to alcoholics due to a policy of “not treating drunks.” In fact, Sister Ignatia later vividly recalled a day when she had come…

    … to the [hospital’s] Chapel for prayer shortly after five one morning, only to be met by the night supervisor, who told me in unmistakable terms that the next time I admitted a D.T. [delirium tremens case] to the hospital, I had better stay up all night and run around the corridors after him.

    The first patient admitted was Walter B. “a notorious alcoholic and a regular consumer of paregoric.” His story, “The Back-Slider,” would later appear in the first edition of the Big Book, Alcoholics Anonymous, as would that of his non-alcoholic wife, Marie, titled “An Alcoholic’s Wife.”
    This marked the beginning of the partnership between Dr. Bob and Sister Ignatia at St. Thomas, which became the first religious institution to welcome Alcoholics Anonymous (A.A.). It would eventually have an entire wing dedicated to the treatment of alcoholism. Sister Ignatia later said, “I was pretty well governed by whatever Doctor said as to the length of the stay and type of treatment.” Dr. Bob, however, could never remember the hospital's policy, nor did he ever ask. Before his death in 1950, he and Sister Ignatia had cared for 4,800 alcoholics. A similar arrangement was made by the New York City group with Knickerbocker Hospital, but not until 1945.
    Initially, Sister Ignatia had no idea that Dr. Bob was a recovering alcoholic himself. However, he would later disclose his own past problems with alcohol and his recent recovery.

In 1987, Russian alcoholics established “Московские Начинающие” (Moscow Beginners), the first official Alcoholics Anonymous group in Russia [left: Moscow, 1987].