September 18 in A.A. History

In 1929, Nancy M.-O. [right, with sister Jean, c. 1933] was born in Kingston, Pennsylvania.
    In 2000, she would found the A.A. History Buffs group on Yahoo and relaunch it two years later as the A.A. History Lovers group, predecessors to today’s online AAHistoryLovers Google group and AA History Lovers Facebook group.

    Nancy would live a distinguished life. She would become a stage actor in Pasadena, California, performing alongside Dustin Hoffman. In 1951, she would become personal secretary to Mortimer Adler, PhD [left], who created the Chicago Great Books series, and would work for him until the mid-1950s. They would develop a friendship, and Nancy would receive what was effectively a superb graduate-level education in philosophy and the history of ideas.

    She would also serve as an aide to Senator Harold E. Hughes of Iowa, collaborating on alcohol and drug reform legislation. Later, she would write a book about this experience, With a Lot of Help from Our Friends: The Politics of Alcoholism [right: cover].

In 1946, Alcohólicos Anónimos was founded in Mexico. Days earlier, it had been announced in the pages of El Universal as a “dam against inveterate drunkenness.” The announcement included lines that, when translated into English, read,

	The humanitar­ian work that our honorary consul in Cleveland, Ohio, Mr. Ricardo (Dick) B. P—– [left], who decided to take advantage of his vacations in Mexico to found in our country a branch of the association “AA” (Alco­holics Anonymous), it seems that it will bear fruit, as it is preparing for next Wednesday the 18th of this year, at 7:00 p.m., an act in the “Teatrodel Pueblo” [right, 2009] (attached to Abelardo Rodríguez market) in which Mr. P—– himself will personally give data, reports, as well as guidance

    In 1940 Ricardo had gotten sober in Alcoholics Anonymous in Cleveland, Ohio, where he and his wife Helen had translated the Big Book, Alcoholics Anonymous, into Spanish.

	In 1947, the Dallas Central Office of Texas held its first board meeting and officially opened for business. At that time, there were only two Alcoholics Anonymous groups in the metropolitan area. The Central Office was located in the Republic National Bank Building, renamed the Davis Building in 1954 [left, c. 1940], at 1309 Main St., Dallas, in a old, musty, somewhat cluttered office. Dick P., who had suffered physical effects of poisoning from drinking Jamaica Ginger (“Jake”) [right] during Prohibition, served as the director.

	In 1954, William “Bill” D. [left, with his wife, Henrietta], 63, died at Crile Veterans Hospital in Cleveland, Ohio, as a result of a heart attack he suffered 11 months earlier [right: obituary]. His story, “Alcoholics Anonymous Number Three,” appears in the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th editions of the Big Book, Alcoholics Anonymous. He was buried at Greenlawn Memorial Park in Akron, Ohio. Henrietta would live for another 28 years and 3 days [below left: their headstones].

    Bill W. would say of Bill D.,

    That is, people say he died, but he really didn’t. His spirit and works are today alive in the hearts of uncounted AAs, and who can doubt that Bill already dwells in one of those many mansions in the great beyond.

September 17 in A.A. History

In 1934, Bill W. was admitted to Charles B. Towns Hospital [right] for the third time. His brother-in-law, Dr. Leonard V. Strong, once again paid for his stay. Dr. William D. Silkworth pronounced Bill hopeless and informed his wife, Lois, that Bill would likely need to be committed. After leaving the hospital, Bill felt broken and scared; he would stay sober for a brief period, driven primarily by his fear of drinking again. Eventually, he would find some work on Wall Street, which helped him regain some of his confidence.

	In 1968, at the 28th International Congress on Alcohol and Alcoholism in Washington, DC [right: “Alcohol under the Microscope,” The Windsor (Ontario) Star, 17 Sep 1968, p. 23], Dr. Jean Pierre von Wartburg [left, 1976] of the University of Bern, Switzerland, received the first E. M. Jellinek Memorial Fund Award for his outstanding contributions to the advancement of knowledge on alcohol and alcoholism. The award included a bronze bust of E. M. “Bunky” Jellinek [below right] and $1,000 [~$9,300 in 2025].
	Dr. Wartburg was honored for his research on the genetics and biochemistry of alcoholism. He had identified an abnormal form of the liver enzyme alcohol dehydrogenase, which breaks down alcohol 5 to 6 times faster than the normal form. This variant was found in 20% of the Swiss population [left: “Liver Enzyme May Be Drinking Factor,” The News and Observer (Raleigh, NC), 18 Sep 1968,  p. 41]     The congress was the largest gathering ever dedicated to the prevention and treatment of alcoholism. The Governor of Iowa, Harold E. Hughes [right], also delivered a speech at this convention in which he announced,     I was born an alcoholic. I never took a normal drink in my life. I realized in my late 20s that for me, to drink was to die. I could not drink and maintain sobriety.

In 1975. John “Jack” Alexander [right, c. 1946], 73, died. His obituary in the West Texas Register credited him as the newspaperman who made “Alcoholics Anonymous a major organization by the articles he wrote about its work.” He authored the article titled “Alcoholics Anonymous: Freed Slaves of Drink, Now They Free Others,” which appeared in the 1 March 1941 issue of The Saturday Evening Post. This article resulted in 6,000 inquiries to the New York City office of the Alcoholic Foundation over the following nine months.

    Jack also served as a Class A (non-alcoholic) Trustee of the Alcoholic Foundation from 1951 to 1956.

In 1952, Hector C. was admitted to a clinic in Buenos Aires, Argentina [left: location of Buenos Aires within Argentina], for a serious alcohol problem. There, he was treated by Dr. Roberto Pochat, an Argentine physician who had recently returned from the U.S., where he had completed a course on alcoholism at Yale University. He had also been in contact with many A.A. members, who explained the A.A. program to him in detail and had allowed him to attend many A.A. meetings.
    During Hector’s stay, Dr. Pochat encouraged him to read the Big Book, Alcoholics Anonymous, along with several A.A. pamphlets, all in English.

September 16 in A.A. History

		In 1894, Bill W.’s parents, Emily Griffith [far left, c. 1905] and Gilman W. [near left], were married.

In 1905, while living at 42 Chestnut Ave. [right, recent] in Rutland, Vermont, 9-year-old Bill W.’s father, Gilman, took him for a late-night buggy ride [below left: artistic portrayal] after a bitter argument with his wife, Emily.

     As Bill later recalled, his father said to him, “You’ll take care of her, won’t you, Billy? You’ll be good to your mother and to little Dotty [his sister, Dorothy] too.” Then he answered his own question, “Sure you will. Sure. You’re okay, Billy.” As his father raised a jug to his lips and took a long, slow drink, Bill knew that the explanation he was waiting for would not be given.

    The next morning, Dorothy told him that their father had left them. Until that point, Bill’s mother had been away from home for extended periods. Gilman went to western Canada, and Bill did not see him again for nine years. Emily sent word to her father, Fayette Griffith, in East Dorset, Vermont, to come to Rutland and pick up Bill and Dorothy [above right: c. 1905]. Emily stayed in Rutland for a while to make arrangements.

In 1912, entering his senior year at Burr and Burton Seminary [left] in Manchester, Vermont, Bill W. was the class president, a star football player, the pitcher and captain of the baseball team, and the first violinist in the school orchestra.

In 1923, Bill W. returned to Brooklyn Law School [right: Brooklyn Eagle Building, which housed the law school, 1923]. All of his classes were third-year courses, except for Equity, a second-year course that he had failed in February. When he retook the course, he passed. 

September 15 in A.A. History

In 1855, the future Dr. Clark Burnham was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, a middle child among ten of Rev. Dr. Nathan Clark Burnham, Jr. [right, c. 1888] and Mary Arrison Burnham. His father practiced law, medicine, and religion, serving as an ordained minister in the Swedenborgian Church. Lois Burnham, who would become Mrs. Bill W. in 1918, would be Clark’s eldest child.

In 1940, a sober Cmdr. Junius Lee C. [left] arrived at the Naval Air Station (NAS) in Jacksonville, Florida, to organize the first Aviation Training Schools there. The NAS was set to be commissioned on October 15. Cmdr. C. would become a key player in the establishment of Alcoholics Anonymous in Florida.

In 1978, Father Mychal Fallon J. (born Robert Emmett J. on 11 May 1933) [right] got sober. He would die in the attack on the World Trade Center on 11 Sep 2001, while serving as a chaplain for the New York City Fire Department. Although he was not the first to die, he would officially be designated as Victim 0001 because his body was the first to be recovered and taken to the medical examiner.

In 2001, on the 23rd anniversary of his sobriety, a funeral Mass for Father Mychal Fallon Judge, born Robert Emmett Judge on 11 May 1933, was celebrated by Cardinal Edward Egan, the Archbishop of New York, at St. Francis of Assisi Church in Manhattan. Father Mychal had died in the World Trade Center attack just four days earlier. The Mass was attended by 3,000 people, including former President Bill Clinton and Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton. President Clinton said that Judge’s death was a “special loss” and urged, “We should lift his life up as an example of what has to prevail. We have to be more like Father Mike than the people who killed him” [left: FDNY Memorial to Judge at Engine 1, Ladder 24 in Manhattan].

September 14 in A.A. History

In 1943, an unnamed A.A. member in Chicago wrote the text for “Out of the Fog” [right: cover], which is still available as a pamphlet from the Chicago General Service Office. It begins:

    Thirteen months ago I was in an interesting position. No, Murgatroyd, I wasn’t an expectant mother. Had I been, I would have know what to do. I’d merely have written a piece for True Confessions Magazine and thereby earned the necessary $50.00.
    This interesting and delicate position of mine, however, was at least pregnant with chaotic confusion. Mine was mainly a confusion in terms—and that, by a carefully arranged coincidence, enables me to drag in a cute saying by my younger son, Jerrold, better known as Jaybo. He was 6 years old at the time and consequently pure of mind, but I have confidence in your ability to enrich the story with the dirtiest possible construction on his remark.

In 1954, [John] Mark Whalon [left, delivering mail], 70, Bill W.’s oldest, closest, and only local friend, died. As Bill was being born, nine-year-old Mark was among a crowd of neighborhood boys gathered on the porch to listen to Emily’s screams, evidence of the strangeness of the adult world.

    He had worked as a mailman in rural Vermont driving 24 miles a day to deliver mail to 80 homes, six days a week.He wrote two books. Rural Peace, published in 1933, is a collection of poems reflecting on the carefree moments, hardships, stark realities, and difficult truths of daily life in East Dorset. Rural Free Delivery: Recollections of a Rural Mailman [right], published in 1942, is an autobiography detailing his experiences growing up and living in East Dorset.

September 13 in A.A. History

In 1937 [March 1937? March 1938?], Florence R. of Westfield, New Jersey, became the first woman to get sober in the New York City A.A. group and the second to do so anywhere. 

    She was the ex-wife of a man Bill W. knew from Wall Street and had divorced him, thinking that this would eliminate the cause of her drinking. She ended up in Bellevue Hospital [right, c. late 1930s], where her ex-husband took Lois W. to see her. Bill and Lois got her out of Bellevue, and she stayed with them for a while before moving in with other A.A. members, and with Ruth Hock. She began attending meetings in March 1937 but struggled with maintaining her sobriety. Because of her, the name “One Hundred Men” would be discarded for the Big Book and the publishing company of the same name.
    After she got sober, her story, “A Feminine Victory,” was included in the first edition of Alcoholics Anonymous. In writing it, she said, she prayed for inspiration to tell her story in a way that would encourage other women to seek the help she had received.

In 1939, according to index cards of members maintained by the Central Office in Chicago, Illinois, Sylvia K. [left] had sobered up on this date.
    Her doctor, Seth Brown from Evanston, Illinois, had somehow learned about the new book, Alcoholics Anonymous, despite the lack of publicity at that time. He read it and called Sylvia, who would later say, “That call marked the turning point in my life.”
    She is widely regarded as the first woman to achieve permanent sobriety and would play a crucial role in founding A.A. in Chicago. Her story, “Keys to the Kingdom,” appeared in the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th editions of Alcoholics Anonymous.

In 1941, WHJP in Jacksonville, Florida, aired “Spotlight on A.A.,” the first ever radio series about Alcoholics Anonymous.

In 1946, Bob H., Mr. P., and Bill W., all members of the Richmond (Virginia) Group of Alcoholics Anonymous, presented a program about the Fellowship at the Rotary Club. According to a September 19 article titled “Alcoholics Anonymous Put On Rotary Program” [right] published by the Rappahannock Record of Kilmarnock, Virginia, Bob “told about the organization and the work it is doing across the country,” while Mr. Philips and Bill…

    gave personal experiences of their lives as alcoholics, telling how they had lost their business, friends and everything they had as drunks in the gutter before starting life anew as members of Alcoholics Anonymous.… Alcoholics Anonymous is composed of alcoholics who have voluntarily joined the organization and have overcome the curse of drink. The speakers said that about 75% those who join stay with the organization and never take another drink thus becoming useful citizens of society again.

In 1952, Hector G. was admitted to a clinic in Buenos Aires, [left: location of Argentina, showing Buenos Aires] for serious alcoholism. There, he was treated by Dr. Roberto 
Pochat, an Argentine physician who had recently returned from the United States, where he completed a course on alcoholism at Yale University. Additionally, Dr. Pochat had been in contact with many members of Alcoholics Anonymous in the U.S., who had explained A.A. methods to him in great detail and facilitated his attendance at numerous meetings.
    During Hector’s hospitalization, Dr. Pochat had him read A.A. pamphlets and the Big Book, Alcoholics Anonymous (in English), and suggested that he seek help from the Alcoholic Foundation in New York City after his discharge.

In 1969, Leonard V. Harrison [right], 77, died at his home. He had been Chairman of the Alcoholic Foundation Board of Trustees from March 1942 to October 1950 and from April 1956 to April 1961. He had also served as Commissioner of Welfare for New York City and was a director of the Community Service Society of New York [City].

September 12 in A.A. History

	In 1941, Robert Shaw, 70, died of a heart attack in his car in the driveway of his home [left: home; near right: obituary; far right: grave] in Long Beach, New York.
A friend of Willard Richardson, he joined the Alcoholic Foundation Board of Trustees in December 1939 as its third Chairman, becoming the first Class A Trustee to hold that position.     Together with his father, William Walden Shaw, he had founded the Dake Bakery Company in Chicago, Illinois, where he was born. This bakery was one of 40 acquired by Adolphus Green in 1890 to form the American Biscuit and Manufacturing Company. In 1898, this company merged with William H. Moore’s New York Biscuit Company and John Gottlieb Zeller’s Richmond Steam Bakery to create the National Biscuit Company, which later became known as Nabisco. Shaw retired in 1914 while still in his 40s.

	In 1942, U.S. Assistant Surgeon General Dr. Lawrence Kolb [left] spoke at a dinner honoring Bill W. and Dr. Bob S. The following month, Bill would inscribe Kolb’s copy of Alcoholics Anonymous with the words, “To Dr. Lawrence Kolb / In grateful appreciation of his friendship / Bill Wilson” [right]. At the 10th General Service Conference in 1960, Bill would express his thoughts about Kolb:
Old Fitz Mayo, one of the early AA’s and I visited the Surgeon General of the United States in the third year of this society and told him of our beginnings.      He was a gentle man, Dr. Lawrence Kolb, and has since become a great friend of AA. He said, “I wish you well. Even the sobriety of a few is almost a miracle. The government knows that this is one of the greatest health problems but we have considered the recovery of alcoholics so impossible that we have given up and have instead concluded that rehabilitation of narcotic addicts would be the easier job to tackle.

In 1946, a dispute arose over a funding solicitation from the National Council for Education on Alcoholism (NCEA). The solicitation was written by Marty M. and printed on NCEA letterhead, which included the full names of Alcoholics Anonymous’ co-founders, Dr. Bob S. and Bill W.

    Marty had founded the NCEA with the support both co-founders. In her role at the NCEA, she regularly broke her anonymity. Initially, Bill thought thought this was acceptable, and Marty spoke extensively about Alcoholics Anonymous (A.A.) during her continual lectures across the country. This was prior to publication of the Traditions. Even so, many A.A. members feared the inclusion of the co-founders’ names on NCEA letterhead might be taken to imply a connection between A.A. and NCEA. In response, the Alcoholic Foundation would publish both a letter and an article [right] in the October A.A. Grapevine denying any affiliation between A.A. and the NCEA. This incident contributed to the widespread feeling that “total non-affiliation was the only solution” to A.A.’s relationship with other organizations.

September 11 in A.A. History

In 1915, Bill W. and Lois Burnham [left, 1915] were secretly engaged.

In 2001, the Underwood Building at 30 Vesey St. [near right, c. 1940; far right, c. 2009] in Manhattan was damaged, but not destroyed, in the attack on the World Trade Center by Islamist terrorists.

    From 1940 to 1944, it served as the first headquarters of the Alcoholic Foundation in New York City. Built in 1911 by John Thomas Underwood, the building originally housed the Underwood Typewriter Company [left: advertisement, c. 1911]. In 2008, it sold for nearly $15,000,000 [~$22,500,000 in 2025].

In 2001, Father Mychal Fallon Judge [right], 68, died in the World Trade Center attack while serving as a chaplain for the New York City Fire Department. He was a Catholic priest who was very supportive of the gay community and an American Franciscan friar. Although others died before him that day, he would be designated as Victim 0001, the first official fatality of the attack, because his body was the first to be recovered and taken to the medical examiner. He had gotten sober on 15 September 1978, and his funeral Mass would be held on his 23rd sobriety anniversary at St. Francis of Assisi Church in Manhattan.

September 10 in A.A. History

	In 1948, the Berea Group of Alcoholics Anonymous in Berea, Ohio [~12.4 mi, ~20.0 km SW of Cleveland], celebrated its 8th anniversary with Clarence S. as the main speaker [left: CD recording of his talk]. Its first meeting was on Friday, 23 August 1940, and the group continues to meet today [right: meeting place, St. Thomas Episcopal Church].

September 9 in A.A. History

In 1925, Melvin “Mel” B. [right, c. WWII] was born in Norfolk, Nebraska, the eldest son and middle child of three children of Bertha Swisher and Learner B.
    One of his schoolmates would be Johnny Carson, the longtime host of The Tonight Show. Mel would sober up in 1950 and become a prolific writer, freelancing for Ohio’s The Toledo Blade and authoring numerous books and articles. Writing as “Mel B.,” he would contribute dozens of articles to the A.A. Grapevine and publish several recovery- and A.A.-related books. Additionally, he would serve as the primary author, without attribution, of Pass It On, the General Service Conference-approved biography of Bill W.

In 1933, William “Bill” B. [left, with Lois W.] was born in Brooklyn, New York, the only child of William and Ruth McLintock B. 
    He would get sober on 8 Apr 1962; become a close friend of Lois W.’s for the last 16 years of her life; author The Lois Wilson Story: When Love is Not Enough (2005), along with 24 other titles; co-write the screenplay for the movie of the same name (2010); write the screenplay for and act (in the role of “Wade”) in My Name Is Bill W. (1989); produce a number of films, including Dog Day Afternoon, Kansas City Bomber and Serpico; serve as a Stepping Stones volunteer for a half century, and sit on the Stepping Stones Foundation Board of Trustees (1997–2006).

In 1935, Ernest “Ernie” K. [right] was born in Rochester, New York—just three months after A.A. was founded. He was the oldest of two children of Edward and Josephine Kurzejewski (Koo-zhay-yev’-ski). In 2009, he would reflect back on his surname:

    Eight years of grammar school in a German parish shortened that name for practical use, and when I began graduate school bringing transcripts in two names, I was advised to choose one. Tired of too-lengthy phone interactions, I opted for the one that was easier to spell. But I do remain proud of my Polish heritage and advertise it whenever appropriate.

    In 1979, Hazelden Educational Services would publish Ernie’s Not-God: A History of Alcoholics Anonymous, a revised and expanded version of his 1978 Harvard University dissertation. He would go on to write at least six more books, along with numerous monographs and articles on the intellectual significance of A.A., recovery, and spirituality.

	In 1936, Lois W.’s father, Dr. Clark Burnham [left], age 81, or possibly 80, died of pneumonia at Mount Vernon Hospital in Mount Vernon, New York [right, New York Times obituary]. He had graduated with honors from Franklin and Marshall College and studied medicine at the Hahnemann School of Medicine in Pennsylvania, specializing in gynecology. After his death, the Burnham family home at 182 Clinton St., Brooklyn, would be taken over by the mortgage company, allowing Lois and Bill to live there at a reduced rent (due to rent controls in the depressed housing market) until 1939.