January 11 in A.A. History

2008: A memorial service honoring Robert “Bob” P. [right, with his wife Betsy] was held in Sun Valley, Idaho, following his death on January 1.
    Bob made significant contributions to Alcoholics Anonymous, serving on the General Service Board from 1968 to 1974 and as the General Manager of the General Service Office (G.S.O.) from 1974 to 1984. His personal story, “A.A. Taught Him to Handle Sobriety,” appears in both the 3rd and 4th editions of the Big Book, Alcoholics Anonymous.

     He also wrote a Manuscript of A.A. World History, dated 1985. This manuscript served as the first draft of an in-depth history of Alcoholics Anonymous from the time Bill W. wrote Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age. In 1986, the Conference Literature Committee recommended that “a definitive book on A.A. history from 1955-1985 be prepared and brought to the 1987 Conference for consideration.” The committee produced Advisory Actions regarding this “A.A. History Book” every year from 1987 to 1993. All but the final one specified that work on the book should continue and that a report be made at the following year's Conference. In 1993, the Advisory Action recommended that “the A.A. History Book project be deferred for two years so that a new team of A.A. servants can look at the History Book with fresh ideas.” The single readily available copy of this manuscript (on silkworth.net) notes on the first page that it “was rejected by the Trustees’ Literature Committee and was not published.”

January 10 in A.A. History

1944: A letter, presumably sent to the Alcoholic Foundation in New York City, announced the first meeting of an A.A. group in Burlington, Iowa, which included five members and a contingent from Des Moines A.A. (~140 miles [~225 km] away) to help them get started. Also present was Father T. J. Lew, a Catholic priest, who was so impressed by what he witnessed that he dedicated his Sunday sermon to Alcoholics Anonymous. By the end of the month, Des Moines’ membership would grow to 50, and a new group would be established in Marshalltown, Iowa (~130 miles [~210 km] from Burlington and ~50 miles [~80 km] from Des Moines) [right: Google Earth map of Iowa showing locations of these three cities].

January 9 in A.A. History

1925: In Manchester Center, Vermont, an intoxicated Edwin “Ebby” T. [near right] >on his way home to Manchester, drove his “straight eight” Packard [left: a 1920 Packard] across a large lot, onto the porch, through the door, and into the kitchen of the house where Mrs. Kate Gilmore and and her daughter Elizabeth were living. He struck a stove in the middle of the room, moving it about a foot and scattering soot. A water pipe was also broken, necessitating an immediate call for a plumber to shut off the water. The only damage to the car was a broken fender.
    Fortunately, neither Ebby, his two passengers, nor the Gilmores were injured. One passenger, realizing they were in a kitchen, “demanded a cup of hot coffee.” Ebby then backed the car onto the highway, went to Justice of the Peace Frank Regan in Manchester, and reported the accident. He hadn’t yet received his new driver’s license, and the car had a 1924 New York license plate. The following day, Saturday, he was fined $50 [~$926 in 2026] plus costs [far right: page one article in Vermont's The Bennington Herald, 12 January 1925].

1952: The first “Family Groups” office, known as the “Clearing-house Committee,” was established at the 24th Street Clubhouse in New York City.

January 8 in A.A. History

1937: Bill W. [right: mid to late 1930s] lost his job at Quaw & Foley,^* and at that time, he was still owed one of his two weeks of vacation.^† Bill claimed he was let go due to the March 1937 market crash; indeed, the market losses on 10 March 1937, are ranked as the second-worst day in U.S. financial history. Following this, all aspects of the nation’s business remained depressed for well over a year, with unemployment reaching about 18%. Lois’s diary notes that Quaw & Foley were forced to let Bill go “because they nearly failed.” This would be the last substantive job Bill ever held outside of Alcoholics Anonymous.
[William Schaberg, in Writing the Big Book: The Creation of A.A., asserts at this point in the story (p. 24) that…

Wilson was never happy with his ongoing lack of real employment and he would spend the rest of his life chasing the occasional job opportunities that came his way, while just as constantly trying to resign from the central leadership position that was always being forced back on him by the Fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous.^** In many ways, these two factors defined Bill Wilson’s life from this point forward: he never again held a job outside of A.A. and he was never able to completely let go of the reins that controlled A.A.…

^**Dipping into any of the folders containing Wilson’s voluminous thirty-five years of correspondence that are carefully preserved at Stepping Stones will provide ample support for both of these observations. However it must be noted that Bill Wilson’s desire to hand over the leadership of A.A. to others was always tempered by a conflicting desire on his part to continue “running the show.” He was a complicated and fascinating man.]

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^*Quaw & Foley was a firm that specialized in stock market investigations and provided Bill W. with most of the professional work he did in the early 1930s.

^†Bill would use this week, October 9–16, to visit the alcoholics in Akron, Ohio.

1988: A memorial service for Lois [left, near the end of her life], Bill W.’s widow, was held in Bedford Hills, New York. About fifty family and friends gathered for an informal Quaker-style service in the living room of Stepping Stones, in front of a roaring fire in the stone fireplace. During the service, Michael Alexander, Class A (non-alcoholic) Trustee and chair of the General Service Board, spoke of her many talents and facets: not only was she the leader and organizer of Al-Anon, but she was also a writer, artist, poet, musician, highly sought-after speaker, lover of nature, homemaker, tireless hostess, and devoted wife. “She was a remarkable and great lady and we shall sorely miss her.”

January 7 in A.A. History

1939: After finalizing the details of selling stock in a publishing company to raise funds and retain ownership of what would become the Big Book, Alcoholics Anonymous, Bill W. [far left] and Hank P. [near left] “burn up the telephone to [Willard Richardson [near right] in] New York and even to Ohio where Frank Amos [far right]” was presumably enjoying a three-week vacation. They presented an outline of the new company and the stock plan, and posed a straightforward question: “Would you therefore be in favor that [we] make an effort to secure stock subscriptions for a corporation to take over the book on the terms [we] have just described?” Bill, at least, anticipated a negative response, and that is exactly what they got. Neither Richardson nor Amos agreed and both advised caution before taking any further steps [left: stock certificate for Works Publishing, Inc., the company Bill and Hank would form and sell stock in].

1953: Bill W. sent out a manuscript of new essays on the Twelve Steps for “criticisms and suggestions.” In his letter [right] he reminded recipients that “last spring…” he had “circulated… a similar piece of writing on A.A.’s Twelve Traditions.” He mentioned that “since then, following considerable discussion, a plan had evolved to perhaps combine the two manuscripts into a single book, [the future Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions] …” He noted that Harper & Bros. had made “a very favorable offer” to distribute the book to “the outside public” and expressed his desire to have the book approved by the General Service Conference in April.

1984: Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc. (AAWS) published Pass It On: The Story of Bill W—and how the A.A. message reached the world [left, 1st edition]. Mel B. [right] was the primary author, with assistance from several others.

January 6 in A.A. History

In 1941, Bill W. [near right, 1942] responded to a letter from Jack Alexander [far right], who had enclosed a manuscript of his article on Alcoholics Anonymous for The Saturday Evening Post. Bill’s eagerness was evident:

    I wish I could adequately convey to you the sense of gratitude that every one of us feels towards you and the Saturday Post for what is about to take place. You can not possibly conceive the direct alleviation of so much misery as will be brought to an end through your pen and your good publishers. For many a day you will be the toast of A.A.—in Coca-Cola, of course!

In 1955, Bill W.’s stepmother, Christine Bock W., 77, died in Los Angeles, California. She would be buried alongside Bill’s father in the East Dorset Cemetery in Vermont [left: their headstone].

In 2000, Stephen P. [right], 63, died at Washoe Medical Center in Reno, Nevada, after a 6½-year battle with chronic myelogenous leukemia. Together with his wife Frances, he had compiled A Concordance to Alcoholics Anonymous [left], first published in August 1990.
    Under the pseudonym Stephen E. Whitfield, and with minimal contributions from Gene Roddenberry, he wrote the classic book The Making of Star Trek [right], the first—and for many years the only—specialized reference book on the behind-the-scenes aspects of Star Trek production, published in 1968.

January 5 in A.A. History

In 1939, Hank P. [near right] wrote to Bill W. [center right] after receiving a letter from Tom Uzzell [far right], editor of the book manuscript, which stated:

    I spent last evening with the manuscript... on reading additional chapters... I found myself deeply moved, at times full of amazement, almost incredulity, and during most of the reading I was extremely sympathetic. My feeling at the moment is that you should certainly hold on to the production and distribution of this volume... I don't know what else you could want for a good book. I believe in it most em­phatically... The whole book needs the final shaping of a professional hand... I understand better now the enthusiasm your with me about this work. I thought you were exaggerating somewhat but now I have joined the choir invisible.

    Shortly thereafter, Uzzell began editing the material that Hank and Bill had sent him, resulting in a pre-publication manuscript [left: page 1] that in a few months would become the Big Book, Alcoholics Anonymous.

In 1940, Clarence S. [right] wrote to Bill W.,

    Have attended two of Doc S――’s meetings since he has been holding them in his home, and they have been very well attended and very inspirational.
    Doc led our meeting, and never have I heard him in such fine fettle. Noticed a vast improvement since he pulled his gang out of the Williamses’. Now speaks with authority and no pussyfooting, and I believe he looks ten years younger.

     In 1977, John R. recalled,

    I’m not sure, but I think we had two meetings there. You should have seen Doc’s house! His little living room [left] wasn’t much bigger that this little house we live in. We were crowded up pretty good there.

In 1941 [Lois Remembers says early March], Bill and Lois W. were spending the weekend at the home of A.A. members Ruth and Wilbur S. in Chautauqua, New York. The day before, the S――s had shown the Wilsons an unoccupied house in Bedford Hills owned by the widow, Mrs. Helen Griffith—who was not related to Bill. She wanted to meet the W――s, so they returned to the house to see her. Helen made them an offer: to sell the house for $6,500 [~$148,000 in 2026], significantly less than her original asking price, with no down payment and a monthly mortgage payment of $40 [~$911 in 2026], with no interest for at least the first year. After Bill made some quick mental calculations, he and Lois accepted Helen’s offer.