October 10 in A.A. History

1937: After spending the night in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, with Bill and Lois W., Bill and Kathleen R. picked up Fitz M. just outside Pittsburgh. The five of them then continued on to Akron, Ohio, arriving around 5 PM. They received a warm welcome and were entertained by the large crowd gathered for dinner at Paul Stanley's home. Sterling Parker and his wife, also from New York City, arrived separately and were presumably welcomed as well. Bill and Kathleen stayed with T. Henry and Clarace Williams, while Bill and Lois would spend the next 5½ days with Dr. Bob and Anne Smith [right: Bob S., Anne S., Lois W., Bill W., respectively, c. 1937].

1970: In New York City, Bill W.’s wife, Lois, read “Bill’s Last Message” of 266 words [left] to 2,000 attendees at the annual dinner hosted by the New York Intergroup Association in honor of Bill’s 36th anniversary of sobriety. It read, in part:

My thoughts are much occupied these days with gratitude to our Fellowship and for the myriad blessings bestowed upon us by God’s Grace.

If I were asked which of these blessings I felt was most responsible for our growth as a fellowship and most vital to our continuity, I would say, the “Concept of Anonymity.”

Bill was unable to attend, as he was hospitalized with acute emphysema at the time.

1988: Lois W. was buried next to her husband, Bill, in the East Dorset Cemetery in East Dorset, Vermont [right: Lois’ headstone].

2002: The second Gulf Conference began in Bahrain’s American Mission Hospital [left]. Under the title “A.A. Primary Purpose in Full Throttle in Arabian Gulf,” Bahrain’s central office would later report,

October 10 witnessed a miracle for us; we experienced A.A.’s altruistic movement ripple its way through the atmosphere, deep into our souls. The second Gulf Conference started at 4:30 p.m. with a recovery meeting in Bahrain’s American Mission Hospital and ended past midnight with everyone boogying in a member’s home.

There was mingling, sharing and bonding. There was fellowship from Oman, Riyadh, Kuwait, Daharan, Dammam and even Bournemouth. Attendance was quite overwhelming. To be honest, the organizing committee had expected 35-45 people, but almost double that number came. Some were in A.A., while others were from the medical body. Overall the message of recovery was carried effectively.

No committee, no human power, absolutely nothing but God can take credit for such success.…

God bless your trudge along the Road of Happy Destiny.

October in A.A. History—day unknown

1939: Dorothy Wright S. [right] (Clarence’s wife, who at this time still believed she wasn’t an alcoholic) wrote to the Alcoholic Foundation office in New York City to report that the first A.A. central committee, consisting of five men and two women, had been established in Cleveland, Ohio. She wrote,

It’s really functioning. They appoint leaders, discuss tendencies, and arrange social affairs, and they are thinking of a masked dance for Halloween.

She also noted that each month, one man and one woman would be replaced by the next most senior member, establishing the principle of rotation.

Bill W. later attributed this principle to Albert “Abby” G. [left], the committee’s first chair, saying, “Up to that time, all of our affairs had been in charge of [sic] the ultra-oldtimers, and we naturally supposed it would always be that way.” But Mitchell K.’s How It Worked claims that it was really Clarence’s idea.

Just six months earlier, on 17 April, Abby had been admitted to Akron City Hospital under Dr. Bob S.’s care. On 18 May, he was still in Akron when his non-alcoholic wife hosted Cleveland’s first A.A. meeting at their home. Abby’s story, “He Thought He Could Drink Like a Gentleman,” appears in the 2nd and 3rd editions of the Big Book, Alcoholics Anonymous.

October 9 in A.A. History

1937: [Bill W. typically referred to this event as occurring “in late fall” and that it also included trips to Cleveland and Detroit to look for work. Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers states that it was in November, while others date it to 1936.] While Sterling P. and his wife drove separately to Akron, Ohio, Bill [near right] and Kathleen R. from Hackettstown, New Jersey, picked up Bill and Lois W. [far right, c. mid-late 1930s] in Brooklyn at noon to travel to Akron. The four of them stopped for the night in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania.

Today in A.A. History—October 9–11

1969: The first World Service Meeting (WSM) took place in the East Room [left] of the Roosevelt Hotel in New York City, attended by 27 delegates from 16 countries [right: WSM banner, country flags] :

	Australia	Belgium	Canada	Costa Rica	Colombia	England
	Finland	France	Germany	Guatemala	Holland	Mexico
	New Zealand	Norway	South Africa	United States

The theme of the WSM was “Our Common Welfare.”

October in A.A. History—day unknown

1939: [Early?] Sterling C. and Harlan N., both from Little Rock, Arkansas—possibly together—read Morris Markey’s article “Alcoholics and God” in Liberty magazine, which would lead to them starting first “mail-order” group, in which no one had gone to one of the existing groups to be “sponsored” by an “old-timer” into the Fellowship.

Sterling, an excellent insurance agent with a serious drinking problem, had been trying to get and stay sober for years. During this time, he lost several jobs due to his drinking. In 1938 [or perhaps 1935], he secured a new job at the Foster Cochran agency and made a deal with his boss: he would be automatically fired if he got drunk on the job. Things went well for a while, but then the cravings returned. Sterling confided in his boss about these cravings and his fear of drinking again. His boss advised him to take a few days off “to find himself.” Sterling ended up in New Orleans, where he spoke with an Episcopal priest who recommended reading Richard C. Peabody’s The Common Sense of Drinking and praying for relief. Following the plan outlined in Peabody’s book, Sterling began to turn his life around.

Back in Little Rock, Sterling was able to stay sober. People began to notice that he was becoming a different person. Eventually, a furniture dealer informed Sterling that he had a wonderful salesman, Harlan N., whom he was about to fire due to his inability to stay sober on the job. He asked Sterling to help Harlan. For six months, Sterling met daily with Harlan, trying to help him get and stay sober. Then they read Markey’s article in Liberty.

After reading the article, they wrote to the Alcoholics Foundation’s national office in New York City for a copy of the newly published Big Book, Alcoholics Anonymous. It was sent C.O.D. (cash on delivery), and when it arrived, conflicting accounts emerged regarding what happened next. One account says that it came to Harlan, who was out on a bender, while another says that neither Sterling nor Harlan had the money to cover the cost. In any case, the book was returned. It is also unclear how Sterling eventually obtained his copy of the Big Book; one account says he wrote again for it, while another suggests he convinced his boss at the insurance company to order it for him. The latter account adds that the Foundation’s New York office asked why an insurance company wanted their book, and it took some time to clarify the situation.

Despite these challenges, Sterling eventually got his Big Book. In May 1940, Sterling, Harlan, and Bud G. founded Little Rock’s Central Group [right, date unknown], the first Alcoholics Anonymous group west of the Mississippi River.

October 8 in A.A. History

1937: Bill W. [right, c. mid-late 1903s] 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 was 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…

W―― 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 W――'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.

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^**Dipping into any of the folders containing W――’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 W――’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 [below, near the end of her life], Bill W.’s widow, was held in Bedford Hills, New York. About fifty family members 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.”

October in A.A. History—day unknown

1939: The first A.A. meeting in Chicago, Illinois, proper was held.

At the meeting held at Earl [left] and Katie T.’s apartment in Evanston, Illinois, the attendees discussed their obligation to make Alcoholics Anony-mous available to everyone in the Chicago area, which meant establishing a meeting place in the Loop (downtown).

The historic location, A.A.’s first home in the city, was the top two floors of the Medical and Dental Arts Building^* [near right] at Lake and Wabash. The first meeting there took place on a Tuesday night in October 1939 [i.e., the 3rd, 10th, 17th, 24th, or 31st]. As a bonus for their “mass patronage” of the 65-cent [~$16 in 2026] table d’hôte† on the topside [below right: top four floors], they were given the use of the lounge on the floor below. It was convenient and congenial and much good would be done there.

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^*Designed by Lois’s second cousins, Daniel, Jr. and Hubert Burnham, this 24-story building was completed in 1927.

^†A menu that offers a multi-course meal—with multiple options for each course—at a fixed total price.

October 7 in A.A. History

1903: Test pilot Charles Manly attempted to make the first-ever manned flight, in Professor Samuel Pierpont Langley’s heavier-than-air craft, which was launched by catapult [right: both men, respectively]. Although it had been largely designed and built by others, Manly contributed to the design and engineering. The craft lacked landing gear and had controls only for pitch and yaw, but none for roll [left]. It plunged into the Potomac River “like a handful of mortar,” according to one reporter.  Langley claimed that the crash resulted from a wing clipping part of the catapult.

Seven and a half years earlier, on 6 May 1896, Langley had launched, also from a catapult, the 25-pound [~11 kg] Aerodrome Number Five [right]. The model made two flights, one of 1,005 meters [~3,300 feet] and another of 700 meters [~2,300 feet], at 40 kph [~25 mph], landing in the water as planned. This was 10 times farther than any previous heavier-than-air flying machine, making it the world’s first successful flight of an unpiloted, engine-driven, heavier-than-air craft of substantial size. Six months later, on 11 November, his Number 6 model flew more than 1,500 meters [>5,000 feet].

In 1898, based on these successes, Langley received two War Department grants to develop a piloted airplane, totaling $70,000 [~$2.8 million in 2026]. The funds came through the Smithsonian Institution, of which he was secretary (top executive).

Langley would make a second attempt in December, which would also end in failure. Newspapers would mock the unsuccessful flights, and some members of Congress would harshly criticize the project. Remarkably, Manly would survive both crashes.

The Big Book, Alcoholics Anonymous, makes reference to these events in “We Agnostics” (p. 51).

1978: The Finnish Alcoholics Anonymous Convention, which celebrated the 30th anniversary of A.A. in Finland, was convened with several delegates from the 5th World Service Meeting, held in Finland in the days prior, in attendance.

2009: The Red Book [far left: cover; near left: p. 119], a red leather-bound folio manuscript created by the Swiss psychiatrist Carl Gustav Jung [near right, c. 1905–15] between 1915 and about 1930, was published in both German and English. Although it is considered a central work in Jung’s œuvre, his estate (Jung died in 1961) would not permit its publication before 2000, when it began preparations for its release.

The book recounts and comments on Jung’s psychological experiments conducted between 1913 and 1916, drawing on earlier manuscripts, seven private journals known collectively as the Black Books [far right], which he first drafted in 1913–15 and 1917.

October 6 in A.A. History

1937: Paul [left] and Hildreth S. wrote to Bill and Lois W. [right, mid-late 1930s] about their upcoming visit to Akron, Ohio, on October 10. The letter said, in part:

Dr. Smith just told me that we are to expect a visit from you over the week-end, and that two other couples, the Parkers and the Ruddells, are coming with you. Needless to say, we are looking forward to this visit with a great deal of anticipation and pleasure, as are all the folks with whom we spend so much time…

We have made arrangements for a little dinner party at our house on Sunday. There may be a few of us who will be tied up in a little meeting for an hour or so. Then we are planning on having an evening session at T. Henry [Williams]'s house after that.

We hope we are not laying out a program that would seem to be too strenuous for you, but we feel certain that you will be amply repaid for the inconvenience that such a trip may cause by the pleasure that you will afford us by your coming.

1941: A dinner honoring Dr. Bob S. [right], attended by 900 guests, was held in Cleveland, Ohio.

1944: The first A.A. meeting in Maine took place at Chan R.'s house in Cape Elizabeth [left: U.S.S. Constitution passes Portland Head Lighthouse in Cape Elizabeth on 23 July 1931], attended by Chan, Jim M., Clint W., and one other person. Chan had gotten sober in A.A. in Florida before relocating to Cape Elizabeth. Clint had written to the New York City Alcoholic Foundation office for help; they referred him to Chan. Meanwhile, Jim M. from Newport, Maine, had attempted a geographic cure by moving in with his sister in Brooklyn, New York, but his drinking only worsened. In desperation, he contacted Kings County Hospital in 1942, and they directed him to A.A. He attended meetings in New York City for two years before returning to Newport in 1944.

October in A.A. History—day unknown

1939: Membership in the Alcoholics Anonymous Group in Cleveland, Ohio, surged from 12 to 100 in the month following the publication of “Alcoholics and God” [far left] by Morris Markey [right], which appeared in the September issue [near left: cover] of Liberty magazine.

1939: Clarence S. [right, 1942], who founded the first group in Cleveland, Ohio, and named it “Alcoholics Anonymous,” began to identify himself as a “founder of Alcoholics Anonymous.” This may have been partly in response to the positive publicity from Morris Markey’s article “Alcoholics and God,” which appeared in the September issue of Liberty magazine, and partly because he wanted to be associated with the successful group he had started.

October 5 in A.A. History

1988: Lois Burnham W. [left], 97, Bill’s widow, died peacefully at Northern Westchester Hospital in Mt. Kisco, New York, near Stepping Stones, her home in Bedford Hills. She made significant contributions to Alcoholics Anonymous and was a founder of Al-Anon Family Groups. Michael Alexander, former Class A trustee and chairman of the General Service Board of Alcoholics remarked, “Many A.A.s today feel their lives are owed to Lois as well as Bill, Dr. Bob and Anne S—–.”

Today in A.A. History—October 5–6

1943: [November?] The Bangor Daily News (Maine) published an interview with Jack Alexander titled “Writer Whose Saturday Evening Post Article First Made ‘Alcoholics Anonymous’ Known Tells Daily News of Early Skepticism” [right]. Here is an excerpt from the interview; the speaker is Mr Alexander:

“Four AA’s called to see me one afternoon,” he said. “They were well dressed and seemed affluent—apparently men of affairs. And as they sat drinking Coca-Cola, which was all they seemed to want, they talked smoothly of their own experiences.

“Was I convinced? Far from it. My skepticism only grew. I remember thinking: ‘They could be Broadway actors from some casting bureau.’

“I had talks with a man I will call Bill—a disarming guy, who, as I once wrote, knew the folklore of alcoholism. And, with him, I attended two meetings of an AA group in downtown New York—West 22nd Street, I believe. Here, anyway, were men it was easy to recognize as genuine alcoholics. And I learned that once a week they were bringing from a certain asylum for the insane some supposedly helpless inmates—sufferers from ‘wet brain’—and working on them. I learned, too, from asylum officials, that some were being cured.

“Well, I was impressed—quite deeply impressed—but the skepticism remained. I didn’t want the Post victimized, intentionally or through a mistaken crusading spirit. And yet, and yet— 

“Was I being unjust? Was I trying to shut my eyes to something big and vital and needed by suffering humanity? I decided to investigate in other cities.

“I first drove to Philadelphia, where two AAs took me to the psychopathic ward of the Philadelphia General Hospital. I saw how the AAs worked upon the alcoholic patients, some of them shaken from tremendous ‘binges.’ When they got out, I was told, they would be taken to a general meeting, and it would be the start of their cooperative cure.

“Deeply interested by this time, I next went to Akron, where the movement had started. And it was in this Ohio city, I believe, that I at last became convinced. Here I paid hospital visits, attended meetings, heard testimonials. I began to see that it all fell into a general pattern, whatever the community.

“Followed, then, a visit to Cleveland, where the movement was growing like a snowball rolling down hill [sic]; and to Chicago, where my conversion was complete. For here I met a man who had been assistant city editor of a daily paper at a time when I was supposed to be the star reporter. He was a city editor now and getting along well. Yes, he had been an alcoholic: and he told me how he had walked through the shadows. We talked the same language and it was a language that didn’t lie.

“The climax for me came in St. Louis, which is my home town. Here, in A. A. group meetings, I met old friends—school chums, some of them. Even I hadn’t guessed they were alcoholics. What they told me was convincing: I was sold, if ever a man was sold.”

Today in A.A. History—October 5–7

1972: The 2nd World Service Meeting (WSM) took place at the Roosevelt Hotel in New York City. The theme was “Our Primary Purpose.” The meeting was attended by twenty-nine delegates from the fifteen countries listed below (counting Canada and the U.S. separately), spanning five continents, and included trustees and staff from the U.S./Canada General Service Office (GSO) and the A.A. Grapevine, Inc. office:

Australia	Belgium	Colombia	England	Finland
France	Germany	Ireland*	Mexico	New Zealand
Nicaragua*†	Norway	South Africa	Sweden*	U.S./Canada

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^*First-time attendees

^†Representing Central America, in place of Costa Rica and Guatemala, who did so at the 1st WSM.

Holland had been represented at the 1st WSM in 1969, but sent no one to the 2nd.

Discussion topics included anonymity, the A.A. Grapevine, professional relations, publishing and literature policies, finance, and the service structures of the fifteen General Service Offices represented. For the first time, the delegates also addressed the internal organization and procedures of the WSM; their recommendations have been followed ever since, with certain amendments. However, the agenda items of greatest interest were likely the location and timing of the next WSM—if there was to be one—as well as financing and voting procedures.

1978: The 5th World Service Meeting (WSM) took place at the Hanasaari^* Hotel on Hanasaari Island [right], in Espoo, Finland, near Helsinki. The theme was “Recovery, Unity, Service—Worldwide.” The countries represented were:

Australia	Belgium†	Brazil	Canada	Colombia
El Salvador	Finland	French Europe†	Guatemala	Honduras
Mexico	New Zealand	Nicaragua	Norway	South Africa
Sweden	United Kingdom	United States	West Germany

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^†Delegates from Belgium and France represented all of French-speaking Europe.

A proposal for an Asia-Oceania Service Meeting (AOSM) was introduced by Bob P. from New Zealand, who first conceived the idea. This marked the beginning of discussions that ultimately led to the first AOSM meeting in Tokyo, Japan, in 1995.

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^*Hanaholmen in Swedish, literally meaning “rooster-hen.”

October 4 in A.A. History

1943: John Henry Fitzhugh “Fitz” M. [right], 46, died of cancer. He was one of Bill W.’s first two sponsees in New York City and died eight years sober.

Fitz had run away from school to join the Army during World War I, registering for the draft on 24 August 1918. However, the Armistice was signed on the day he arrived in Atlanta to enlist. He registered again for the draft for World War II on 16 February 1942, and reported for military service on 12 September 1942. Shortly thereafter, he was diagnosed with cancer. He died less than a month later. Fitz was buried [left: headstone] on the grounds of Christ Episcopal Church in Owensville, Maryland, where his father had served as pastor. When his good friend Jimmy B. died in 1974, he was buried in the same cemetery, just a few feet away from Fitz.

Fitz’s story, “Our Southern Friend,” appears in all four editions of the Big Book, Alcoholics Anonymous.

October in A.A. History—day unknown

1927: [September?] On their way home from Havana, Cuba, where Bill W. had gone to investigate the Cuban Sugar Co., he and his wife, his wife, Lois, stopped in Miami Beach, Florida, to see Bill’s father, Gilman W. [right], and his second wife, Christine Bock W. There, Bill met his half‑sister, Helen W. [left, 1931], who had been born in 1915, when he was nine days short of being 21 years old.

1935: [November?] John Henry Fitzhugh “Fitz” M. [top right], of Cumberland, Maryland, left Towns Hospital to become the second, third, or possibly even fourth A.A. member in New York City, following Bill W., Hank P., and perhaps Bill R.

Fitz’s story, “Our Southern Friend,” has appeared in all four editions of the Big Book, Alcoholics Anonymous.

1938: The term “Alcoholics Anonymous” was first used, according to Bill W., whose recollection was notoriously poor, especially when it came to dates.

1938: [November?] Hank P. [right] created a 14-page prospectus [left: p. 14, subscription form] for a “One Hundred Men Corporation,” aimed at producing a book titled One Hundred Men, which would eventually be published as the Big Book, Alcoholics Anonymous. He then began selling shares. The prospectus said, in part:

It is an indisputable fact that over the past four years over one hundred true alcoholics have recovered, who from the standpoint of medicine and psychiatry, were considered hopeless. These men have dubbed themselves Alcoholics Anonymous.

Regarding the book, he said, “Ten chapters have now been written.”