April 1 in A.A. History

1926: Clarence S. [near right, 1942] and Dorothy Wright [far right] married after a three-month courtship.

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.

1944: Marty M. [near right, 1946] moved to New Haven, Connecticut, to establish the National Committee for Education on Alcoholism (NCEA), initially headquartered at Yale University. During this period, Marty lived with the family of Elvin Morton (E.M.) “Bunky” Jellinek [far right]. She also participated in the Yale Summer School of Alcohol Studies, which had begun the year before.

1945: [Easter Sunday] In New York City, Knickerbocker Hospital [left, c. 1940] opened a small ward dedicated to treating alcoholism—the first such facility in a general hospital in the city. This was a significant step, as many general hospitals at the time would not admit alcoholics, requiring doctors to use false diagnoses for admittance.

1950: The Saturday Evening Post published Jack Alexander’s “The Drunkard’s Best Friend” [right, p. 1 of article], 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.

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

1970: A.A.’s General Service Office 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.”

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