September 3 in A.A. History

In 1905, Felicia G. [right, with her mother] was born in Narvosielica, in present-day Ukraine. Her father was a hard-drinking womanizer with a bankrupt estate in Russian Poland, the fortune-hunting Polish Count Józef G. Her mother, Eleanor Medill Patterson, was a Chicago-born newspaper heiress and the granddaughter of Joseph Medill, founder of The Chicago Tribune.
    Felicia would come to Alcoholics Anonymous (A.A.) in 1943, relapse briefly during her first year, and have her last drink in 1944. Marty M. became her sponsor. Her story, “Stars Don’t Fall,” appears in the 2nd and 3rd editions of the Big Book, Alcoholics Anonymous.

In 1927, after receiving a letter from Frank Shaw of J. K. Rice & Co. inquiring about rumors of his drinking again, Bill W. replied. He was researching the Cuban sugar industry [left: cutting sugar cane on a Cuban plantation] for Frank while staying at the luxurious Hotel Sevilla in Havana, Cuba. Bill promised that he and Lois were “going to move to another place which will be more reasonable and which from now on will answer our purpose just as well.” However, Lois later recalled that they never left the Sevilla.
    Bill’s letter continued:

    Thank you for your remittance and your letter which followed. Now a few lines for your eyes alone. I have never said anything to you about the liquor question, but now that you mention it and also for the good reason that you are investing your perfectly good money in me, I am at last very happy to say that I have had a final showdown (with myself) on the matter. It has always been a serious handicap to me, so that you appreciate how glad I am to be finally rid of it. It got to the point where I had to decide whether to be a monkey or a man. I know it is going to be a tough job, but nevertheless the best thing I ever did for myself and everybody concerned. That is that, so let us now forget about it.

    Later, Lois would write that Bill drank the entire time they were in Cuba.

In 1930, after being fired in the fall by his “good friend” Dick Johnson, who had given him a job in Montreal—mentioned in his Big Book story on p. 4: “Next morning I telephoned a friend in Montreal…”—Bill W. wrote a pledge to Lois to stop drinking in the family Bible: “Finally and for a lifetime, thank God for your love.” This would be the fourth and final pledge he wrote there [right]. Following this, in despair, he would refrain from making any further promises, at least in their Bible.

In 1938 [possibly the 4th], Archie T. [left], who had been homeless until he moved in with his “unsuspecting” friend, Ralph, was facing the prospect of having to leave:

    Something went wrong with my drinking schedule on the 3rd of September, on a Friday^* night. Instead of getting drunk in the morning and being asleep in the afternoon and being out and getting drunk in the evening and coming home after Ralph went to bed, I got tangled up somewhere and found myself at home in bed at at [sic] ten o’clock at night and he was home too. The time was drawing near when his family were returning from their vacation and I was going to have to get out of there and incapable of finding myself a room because I couldn’t stay sober long enough to face a perspective [sic] landlady and I had no money with which to pay room rent although in that marvelous alcoholic way, I always had money to drink with. Now don’t ask me to explain that. I lay in bed thinking about approaching him, and thought, “No, he’s been very good to me, he’s done a great deal for me in the past. I don’t want to bother him. I don’t want to bother anybody anymore.”
    If I can’t find a solution to this problem by next Monday, this was Labor Day weekend, I’ll put an end to everything. But I finally concluded that before I did anything like that I’d better go in and talk to him. I went in with nothing on 
my mind for the solutions to my problems except to ask him if he would lend me $50. He got out of bed, where he’d been reading, and walked up and down the floor and said: “You don’t need $50, you need a great deal more than that.” Well, I agreed with him on that. But he said “You need a new lease on life, a new interest. I can’t give you those things, but I know someone who might. He asked me if I’d be willing to go and talk to this woman [Sarah Klein^†]. I knew her very slightly, and I said, “Yes”. Because I would have said yes to anything or anybody who might have some answers for me because I no longer had answers for anything. So he grabbed the telephone and started to make a date for me for the next day and I started to back water [sic]. But it was too late and he made an appointment for me to see this woman the next day.
    At four o’clock in the afternoon! [sic] He took me out, bought me some drinks, brought me home, and put me to bed. And I lay there somewhat quieted by the drinks and I wondered how I was going to keep an appointment at four o’clock in the afternoon. And be reasonably sober! And I finally hit on a marvelous solution. I would get up a little earlier than usual and make an effort to get drunk faster. So that I would come home knowing my own habits and sleep off the first of the day’s drinks and then go straight over and see her to keep this appointment. I did these things and they worked out that way.
    I don’t know when I had my last drink. It was on Saturday morning on the third of September before Labor Day in 1938. What time of day it was in the morning I don’t know. I blanked out. I got in this car 25 minutes after six. At about half-past seven is the latest my memory serves me. What time I left there and went home and passed out I don’t know. I saw this woman, and to be brief, she offered me a chance to go down to Akron and to meet some men who had found a solution to their problem which was my problem. She offered to take me, she and her husband offered to take me there, and to do it the next day if I were willing to go. She however insisted that I make up my own mind about it, perfectly freely and without any pressure from her. This took me quite a while. I spent a long time in her house sitting there thinking about it.
    I finally made the decision. I left her house with the full intention of hurrying as fast as my car would take me to the nearest saloon in getting a drink. Half way [sic] to the saloon something stopped me. I can’t tell you what it was. I know what I think it was. Today I’m sure of what it was. I’m sure that her prayers, which were all that were left to her, to do after she let go of me, that her prayers did that. However, I went home and went to bed after 18 days of continuous drinking I went home and went to bed and sweated it out all night. I don’t need to describe that part of it to you. It makes me shutter [sic] to think of it and it would make all you to [sic] shutter [sic]

---

*The first Friday of September 1938 fell on the 2nd.
^†Sarah Klein [right] was known as “The Angel of AA” for her role in helping Archie establish A.A. meetings in Detroit and for her dedication in carrying the A.A. message to alcoholics, particularly n hospitals and prisons.

In 1940, The Wichita Beacon (Kansas) published an article [left] titled “Wichita Will Have Chapter Of ‘Alcoholics Anony­mous.’” An unnamed hospitalized Wichitan said that “he has contacted numerous of Wichita’s habitual drunkards and during this week will seek them out to enroll them in the organization.” The article ended by noting, “In telling the story of the A.A. who began the organization, the Wichitan illustrated the fundamental help to alcoholics—religion.”

    (It was in Wichita, Kansas, on 27 December 1900, that Carry A. Nation [right] first began using a hatchet—rather than the rocks and bricks she had previously used—against saloons.) 

September 2 in A.A. History

	In 1977, the three-day 20th International Conference of Young People in Alcoholics Anonymous (ICYPAA) began at the Shamrock Hilton [left] in Houston, Texas. The theme of the conference was “Sharing Everyone’s Recovery” [right: flyer/registration form; below: conference memorabilia].

September 1 in A.A. History

	In 1939, “Earl T―and the Earlytimers” met* in Evanston, Illinois, forming the first Alcoholics Anonymous meeting in the Chicago area. This meeting took place in the apartment of Earl [left] and his wife, Katie**, at 1324 Central St. [right].

	Eight† people attended: Earl, Katie, Dick R., Ken A., Sadie I., Sylvia K. [left], George M., and a non-alcoholic, Grace Cultice [right, 1951], who would later become the secretary of the group and be known as “The Angel of Chicago A.A.”

^*One source notes that the meeting occurred on “a Tuesday night in September,” suggesting the 5th, 12th, 19th, or 26th, while others indicate the 13th, 20th, or 21st.
^**Other sources claim the meeting was held “at Sylvia Kauffman’s apartment on Central Street.”
^†There are discrepancies regarding attendance; one source states there were “six brand-new A.A.s and three non-alcoholic spouses,” while another reports that “eight people were present, four men and four women, two of whom were non-alcoholics.”

In 1954, Bill W. began dictating “the story of myself and the story of AA from true recollection only” to Ed B. at the Hotel Bedford [right], 118 E. 40th St. in Manhattan. Bill also said,

    [I]t is my purpose to start in with childhood recollections bearing upon my background and ancestry and the events of that time as they related primarily to my personality structure and the defects in it, which no doubt laid the groundwork for my alcoholism.…
    I have always been intensely averse to anything autobiographical being done in print. Indeed, I have always been very much against a biography of any sort, due to our studied policy of playing the founding of this movement down, for as people in it know, this is a society which can function peculiarly well without too much sanction from the top. Of course, I realize that someday biographies may be written, and there is no legal means of preventing them. Therefore the early part of this narrative is intended to set the record somewhere near straight, and for this immediate purpose I will just try to hit a few highlights in the sketch to follow.

	A transcript of this recording led to the publication of Bill W.: My First 40 Years [left: 3rd edition cover] by Hazelden in 2000. The first printing consisted of only 2,500 copies, making it somewhat rare. It also served as the foundation for the first section of Robert Thomsen’s Bill W. [right: 1st edition cover], first published in 1975.

August in A.A. History, date unknown

	In 1936, Frank Buchman [left, 1936] traveled to Germany for the Olympic Games, feeling a heavy burden about Hitler’s actions there due to his deep attachment to the country and its people. While in Berlin, he shared his concerns with Danish journalist Jacob Kronika [right, 1945] at the Esplanade, stating,

    Germany has come under the dominion of a terrible demoniac force. A counter-action is urgent. We must ask God for guidance and strength to start an anti-demoniac counter-action under the sign of the Cross of Christ in the democratic countries bordering on Germany, especially in the small neighbouring countries.

	Upon arriving in Berlin, Moni von Cramon arranged for Buchman to attend a lunch hosted by a German diplomat and his wife, where Himmler [left] would be present. Buchman hoped to secure an interview with Himmler, believing that through him, he could reach Hitler [right]. He managed to schedule an appointment for a few days later.

    However, the “interview” turned out to be a complete disaster. Himmler had hoped to exploit the “absolute obedience” to God exhibited by Moral Re-Armament^* for the benefit of his followers in the S.S. and the Nazis, but he completely failed in this.
    Younger colleagues who accompanied Buchman to the interview confirmed his account, reporting that Himmler entered with several henchmen, delivered a propagandistic speech about Nazism, and left without allowing Buchman or his associates to speak. Buchman’s immediate response was, “Here are devilish forces at work. We can’t do anything here.”
    Ultimately, he never met Hitler and did not make any further attempts to do so.

---

^*Abbreviated “MRA,” and formerly known as the Oxford Group

In 1939, Herbert “Bert” T. [left], a member of A.A. in New York City, pledged his fashionable 5th Ave. tailor shop—already heavily mortgaged due to his drinking—as collateral for a $1,000 [~$23,000 in 2025] loan to Works Publishing.
    Bill W. was desperate to keep the business afloat until the article “Alcoholics and God,” edited by Fulton Oursler, was published in Liberty magazine. To secure the funds, Bert reached out to a wealthy client, Mr. Cochran, in Baltimore, Maryland, who was sympathetic to A.A. Bert explained the situation and requested a loan. Cochran hesitated. When Bert suggested that he buy stock in Works Publishing, Cochran expressed even more doubt and, after reviewing the balance sheet, declined the offer. Finally, Bert proposed co-signing a loan, which Cochran enthusiastically accepted.

    Bill later wrote, “This probably saved the book company.” The magazine article would be published on September 30 [right: magazine cover]; it would generate 800 inquiries and result in sufficient book sales to sustain Works Publishing through 1939. Unfortunately, Bert’s tailor shop would go broke within a year or two.

    [Some sources date this loan to December 6, but that date makes no sense.] 

August 30 in A.A. History

In 1943, the Selective Service finally responded to Clarence S.’s application to become an officer in the U.S. Army, informing him that his request had been referred to another department. He had previously served a brief stint at Officer Candidate School in the U.S. Army in 1942. A month earlier, he had been classified as 1-A by the Selective Service [right: Clarence in uniform].

August 29 in A.A. History

In 1886, T. Henry Williams [right] was born in South Woodstock, Connecticut. In the 1930s, he and his wife, Clarace, hosted meetings of the Oxford Group at their home [left] in Akron, Ohio. This location served as a meeting place for early members of Alcoholics Anonymous, who referred to themselves as the Alcoholic Squad of the Oxford Group. At the end of 1939, they began meeting separately as an independent A.A. group.

In 1956, Bill W. first took LSD in California under the guidance of Gerald Heard, a British-born American historian, science writer, public lecturer, educator, and philosopher. Heard had introduced Bill to Aldous Huxley, an English writer and philosopher, as well as to British psychiatrists Drs. Humphry Osmond^* and Abram Hoffer, who were working with schizophrenic and alcoholic patients in Canada. At that time, LSD was believed to have psychotherapeutic potential, with research being funded by the National Institutes of Health and the National Academy of Sciences. Osmond and Hoffer aimed to induce an experience similar to delirium tremens (the DTs) in the hope of shocking alcoholics away from alcohol. Bill took LSD with Heard and Huxley. 
    Among those Bill later invited to experiment with LSD, and who accepted, were Nell Wing, Father Ed Dowling, Sam Shoemaker, Lois W. (a reluctant participant), Marty M., and Helen W. They participated in these experiments in New York under the medical supervision of a psychiatrist from Roosevelt Hospital. The experiments would also have significant repercussions within Alcoholics Anonymous, yet Bill continued his LSD experiments into 1959 and possibly into the 1960s.

---

^*Osmond coined the term “psychedelic”—from the Greek ψυχή (psyche, meaning “mind”) and δῆλος (delos, meaning “manifest”)—in a letter to Huxley in April 1956.

Today in A.A. History—August 29–September 1

	In 1991, the 34th International Conference of Young People in Alcoholics Anonymous (ICYPAA) took place in at the Hilton San Francisco [right: c. 1971–73] in San Francisco, California [far left: registration form; near left: one bit of swag from the event].

August 28 in A.A. History

	In 1926, Bill W. spent several days visiting and otherwise investigating the American Writing Paper Co. [right: stock certificate; left: logo]. Two days later, his wife, Lois, summarized in her diary what Bill had told her:

    Paper making had always sounded dull until we came here and learned a little about it. It turns out to be complicated and quite an art. Saturday Bill took me through one of the plants where red photographic paper for Eastman and blue paper for phonograph records are made. The company has the government contract for postcards and envelopes.
    Bill raves about the ability and personality of the president, Mr. Willson, and instead of a report about costs and profits, he plans to write about the power of one man to make a success of a company that had failed. All those with whom Bill has talked, whether laborer, superintendent, or official of the company, has been full of enthusiasm and pep, eager to do a good job for Mr. Willson. He has won me over, too, for Saturday afternoon he asked Bill and me to go up Mt. Tom with him.

August 27 in A.A. History

In 1862, Gardner Fayette Griffith [right] (Bill W.’s maternal grandfather) enlisted at the age of 21 in Danby, Vermont, for nine months with Company B of Vermont’s 14th Regiment, which would be called up into the Union Army. In return, he received a bounty of $100 [~$3,200 in 2025] from the town of Danby.

Today in A.A. History—August 27–30

	In 1992, the 35th International Conference of Young People in Alcoholics Anonymous (ICYPAA) took place at the Marriott Society Center Hotel* [left] in Cleveland, Ohio. The theme was “Back to Basics” [right: souvenir tee shirt]. *Later renamed the Marriott at Key Center, likely in 1994, shortly after the Society Center was renamed the Key Center.

August 26 in A.A. History

In 1910, William James [left, 1903], 68, died of heart failure at his family's summer home in Chocorua, New Hampshire.

In 1935, Bill W. [right] returned to New York City from Akron, Ohio. Reflecting on his journey, he later said,

    By the time I got home, I was endowed with a little more humility, a little more understanding, and considerably more experience. Very slowly a group began to take shape.

    He began looking for drunks to help at Calvary Mission and Towns Hospital. His first two successes came from Towns Hospital: Hank P. [far left] from Teaneck, New Jersey, and Fitz M. [near left] from Cumberstone, Maryland.^* Bill and his wife, Lois, started a group^† for drunks trying to get sober that met on Tuesday nights in their home at 182 Clinton St., Brooklyn.
    Their home would also serve as a kind of halfway house for alcoholics who had nowhere else to go.

---

^*It’s unclear who got sober first, Hank or Fitz.
^†This group would later be recognized to have been the second group of Alcoholics Anonymous.

In 1936, the New York World-Telegram published a story about Frank Buchman [right, 1936] written by William A. H. Birnie. Birnie had been given a personal interview with Buchman after arriving to Buchman’s press conference the day before, after it was over.
    Buchman and the Oxford Group faced a public relations disaster when other media outlets began quoting only selected portions of the interview, omitting crucial context.

HITLER OR ANY FASCIST LEADER CONTROLLED BY GOD 
COULD CURE ALL ILLS OF WORLD, BUCHMAN BELIEVES.

    To Dr Frank Nathan Daniel Buchman, vigorous, outspoken, 58-year-old leader of the revivalist Oxford Group, the Fascist dictatorship of Europe suggests infinite possibilities for remaking the world and putting it under “God Control”.
    “I thank heaven for a man like Adolf Hitler, who built a front line of defense against the anti-Christ of Communism,” he said today in his book-lined office in the [Oxford Group] annex of Calvary Church, Fourth Ave and 21st St.
    “My barber in London told me Hitler saved Europe from Communism. That's how he felt. Of course, I don't condone everything the Nazis do. Anti-Semitism? Bad, naturally. I suppose Hitler sees a Karl Marx in every Jew.
    “But think what it would mean to the world if Hitler surrendered to the control of God. Or Mussolini. Or any dictator. Through such a man God could control a nation overnight and solve every last, bewildering problem.”

    The remaining twenty-two paragraphs outlined Buchman's vision of what a God-controlled country might look like, along with his claim that God could reveal His will to anyone:   

The world won’t listen to God, but God has a plan for every person, every nation. Human ingenuity is not enough. That is why the ’isms are pitted against each other and blood flows.

    In his press interviews, Buchman aimed to share his profound experiences of change while also answering the reporter's questions. He devoted much of the time in this interview discussing his personal encounter with the Cross of Christ, a power he believes is strong enough to eliminate hatred from his own life and, consequently, capable of transforming anyone—even a dictator.
    The often-quoted legend from this interview claims that Buchman said, “Thank God for Hitler.” However, this phrase was neither uttered by Buchman nor included in the article. Furthermore, those who were present at the interview assert that it did not reflect the overall tone. For instance, Garrett Stearly stated,

    I was present at the interview. I was amazed when the story came out. It was so out of key with the interview. This had started with an account of the Oxford Group’s work in Europe. Buchman was asked what about Germany. He said that Germany needed a new Christian spirit, yet one had to face the fact that Hitler had been a bulwark against Communism there—and you could at least thank heaven for that. It was a throw-away line. No eulogy of Hitler at all.

    Others held contrary perspectives. In 2016, a blogger posted the following:

    Buchman, who had attended Nazi rallies and was Heinrich Himmler’s guest at the Berlin Olympics, was a Nazi appeaser. If his cult had targeted the disenfranchised and disaffected like so many others, this position might not have caused much harm. But Buchman sought and obtained power and influence. Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain and his principle foreign affairs advisor Sir Horace Wilson were both members of the Oxford Group. When Buchman advised giving Hitler whatever he wanted to prevent war, they listened.

In 1940, Bill W. wrote to Dr. Bob S.:

    To say that I am overjoyed with the progress of Alcoholics Anonymous is stating the case mildly. For a long time I was earful that weak situations… would develop in large numbers as a result of publicity and half-baked starts. But even Washington now has a strong group and places that were shaky such as Los Angeles and San Francisco are coming on beautifully both in quality and quantity. It has become evident only with the last two or three months that the casual traveler, the book, and our central office correspondence and “propaganda” is sufficient to spread AA all over the country. That is a demonstrated fact about which I have no doubt whatever. Neither would anyone who has seen the amazing correspondence which rolls into this office. In some instances there has been no personal contact at all—just our correspondence and the book. An increasing number of people are coming to light who have been dry on the book alone. In many instances they have commenced to work with other people. It is all truly miraculous. Considering the amount of attention and nursing and the great difficulty of starting the original groups, it is all quite incomprehensible. Nevertheless, nationwide success is already here. We cannot possibly fail now.

In 1941, the Cuyahoga County^* Central Committee met for the third time. Their bulletin to all groups announced plans for a Halloween party and a New Year’s Eve party for “all the combined groups,” and inquired if anyone was interested in forming a bowling league. 

	Additionally, it noted the availability of two A.A. pamphlets: 1) the Houston Press articles [left: in pamphlet form] written by Larry J., and 2) the Cleveland Plain Dealer articles [right: once such article].

    This shows that the Cleveland fellowship was actively engaged not only in meetings and Twelfth Step work but also in public relations and social activities.

---

^*Cuyahoga County includes Cleveland, Ohio and its surrounding areas.

	In 2012, Московские Начинающие (Moscow Beginners) celebrated its 25th anniversary with the theme “Наша дверь всегда открыта…” (Our door is always open…) [left: meeting room; right: token from the 25th anniversary].

August 25 in A.A. History

In 1926, Bill W., “in high glee, all dressed up in his neatly pressed old suit,” went “to interview the president of the American Writing Paper Co.” [right: American Writing Paper Co. cylinder machine in Holyoke, Massachusetts, 1936-7] . 

     He and Frank Shaw, the only Wall Street friend still interested in financing Bill’s valuation services, had developed a strong interest in the company, which was then in receivership. The day before, Bill and Lois had ridden their motorcycle [left: Lois on the Harley, 1925] to Holyoke, where the company’s headquarters and 13 of its 23 original rag paper mills were located. They set up camp and had Bill’s suit pressed. In a note added to her Diary of Two Motorcycle Hobos in 1973, Lois wrote:

     Upon our return from Holyoke, Frank was so pleased with Bill’s report on the American Writing Paper Co. That [sic] he gave Bill a regular weekly salary of $50 [~$890 in 2024], as well as options on stock. This permitted us to feel secure enough financially to buy a second-hand car, in which it would be much easier to make the extended trips for Bill’s work. So in early October we left Brooklyn for Vermont and parts north, in our new-to-us 1924 Dodge [right: 1924 Dodge touring car], for which we paid $250 [~$4,440 in 2024]

	In 1934, Edwin “Ebby” T. [left] appeared in court for shooting pigeons with a shotgun [right], believing the birds would ruin the new paint job on his house [below left: Dunean House, 110 Taconic Rd, Manchester, Vermont]. Judge Collins Millard Graves [below right] sent him home for the weekend, ordering him to return to court on Monday, and warning him to arrive sober.
		Back at home, Ebby had 3 or 4 bottles of his favorite beer, Ballantine’s Ale, waiting for him in a cool cellar. Something unexpected happened when he got there:

    So down I went [into the cellar], and I reached for a bottle of ale, and I couldn’t take it. I had said I would be there sober, and this wouldn’t exactly be sobriety. I went upstairs and this voice said, “Oh, don’t be silly. Go down and get that ale. My God, you’re shaking. Go on down and get it.” Well, I couldn’t do it. It wasn,t playing the game square, the way I looked at it. And when I finally made the decision not to touch it and took it over to a friend of mine, three or four houses away, I felt right then a great release from the whole thing. And that lasted for me for over two years. That was the start of the whole release from the problem for the time being.

    This marked the beginning of Ebby’s first sustained period of sobriety, which lasted long enough for him to introduce Bill W. to certain new ideas about getting and staying sober.

	Around the same time, during a visit to Rowland Hazard [left, 1921] in Bennington, Vermont, Cebra Graves [right], son of Judge Graves, learned that Ebby was facing criminal charges and the possibility of commitment to the Brattleboro Retreat (formerly the Vermont Asylum for the Insane) [below right] due to his drinking problem.
Cebra and Rowland decided to take on Ebby as a “a project.” They attended Ebby’s trial and persuaded Judge Graves to release Ebby into their custody. That fall, despite having just met him, Rowland took Ebby to New York City, where he had sobered up with the help of the Oxford Group at Calvary Mission.

In 1936, upon returning from the Olympic Games in Germany, where he had met with Himmler, Frank Buchman [left, Jan 1936], founder of the Oxford Group (OG), held a press conference at Calvary House.

    While nearly all the journalists sent out routine stories, William A. H. Birnie, a reporter for the afternoon paper New York World-Telegram [right: front page, 5 Aug 1936], arrived late and requested a special interview. In the presence of several colleagues, in the room, Buchman answered the reporter’s questions.

      At the time, it seemed inconsequential, but this encounter would soon lead to a public relations disaster for the OG.

August 24 in A.A. History

In 1948, in the early morning hours, police raided the Alcoholics Anonymous (A.A.) Club in Springfield, Missouri. Seven members were arrested, tried, and convicted for gambling, even though the bets were limited to just 10 cents. The police deemed the activity illegal, resulting in front-page newspaper coverage that same day [right: Springfield Leader and Press story, pp. 1, 6].

In 2020, Clancy I. [left], 93, died of an undetermined cause while in isolation after testing positive for COVID-19, according to his daughter, Mary I. Dougherty. He was undergoing rehabilitation for a broken hip and was nearing the end of his isolation period when the rehabilitation center informed her of his passing.

    Clancy had served as the director of the Midnight Mission [right (recent)] in Los Angeles for 46 years and was a sponsor to thousands. With a sobriety date of 31 October 1958, he had over 61 years of continuous sobriety. He left a very successful career at a Beverly Hills marketing firm to become the managing director of the Midnight Mission on Skid Row. Thus, he returned as a transformative leader to an institution that had previously expelled him for bad behavior. Under his leadership, the soup kitchen and residential facilities expanded, implementing programs to address the social needs of the Skid Row community.

August 23 in A.A. History

In 1895, Junius C. Jr. [right: at the U.S. Naval Academy, c. 1915] was born in McComb, Mississippi, to Junius Sr. and Thomasine C. He was the middle child among three surviving sons. Tragically, his father died when Junius was just two years old. His older brother, Joe, had died at the age of 11 months in 1889, six years before Junius's birth.
    Later in life, Junius would become a founder of Alcoholics Anonymous in Jacksonville, Florida.

In 1940, the Berea Group was started [on August 27, according to How It Worked] at the home of Bob J. near Cleveland, Ohio. It branched off from the Lakewood Group and initially had eight members. Soon after, it would relocate to the St. Thomas Episcopal Church [left, with Ogilvy Chapel to its right] Parish Hall in Berea, Ohio.
    By the end of its first year, the group had grown to thirty members. An announcement in the August 1943 issue of the Central Bulletin provided details about the group and its meeting location:

    This group is noted for its friendliness and hospitality.… Berea has most unusual quarters. It meets in the delightfully simple rooms of the Parish Hall of St. Thomas’ which is itself a tiny jewel of a church on the very edge of the Baldwin-Wallace campus. The tall elms and maples, the broad stretches of lawn, the quiet of this charming village plus the dignity and serenity of the church all lend an air of peace and rest to these pleasant meetings. Any of you who have ever attended a Berea meeting will never forget it.