March 6 in A.A. History

1940: The Alcoholic Foundation responded to Margaret D. of Seattle, Washington, who had written to them about her husband on February 11, nearly a month earlier. She would later play a role—though details are scarce—in the establishment of Seattle’s first A.A. group.

1942: In a letter to the Adjutant General of the U.S. Army, Bill W. requested a commission “as a procurement or quartermaster officer, or to engage in some form of intelligence or morale work.” Bill [left] cited his service “in the World War [I] as an artillery officer” and his employment from 1920 to 1924 in “the insurance department of The New York Central Railroad” and at “The U.S. Fidelity & Guaranty Co.... as a criminal investigator.” He described his road travels from 1925 to 1930, often with Lois, as an independent field investigator “of large industrial companies, a role that, he detailed, demanded specific skills and knowledge and provided him with an “income [that] ranged from $5,000 to $20,000 [~$92,600–388,000 in 2026] annually.” Summarizing his pre-A.A. period, Bill noted, “From 1931 to 1934 my earning power was poor due to depression and other causes.”
    In 1934, his “interest in the cure of alcoholism... resulted in my becoming the founder of... Alcoholics Anonymous, which has since made possible the recovery of some 5000 cases of alcoholism of the most acute kind.” He predicted that A.A. “will probably clear up some 5000 new cases during the current year” and noted that A.A. was “nationally known through much newspaper and magazine publicity” and “enjoys the highest medical standing as well.” His added that his book, Alcoholics Anonymous, “earns him about $7000 [~$139,000 in 2026] annually.” He also noted, “In addition, I have handled the public relations of [A.A.]..., have done a very large amount of personal work with individuals, and am an experienced public speaker.”
    Finally, he provided four business references—Frank Shaw, Dick Johnson (of Greenshields & Co.), Clayton Quaw (of Quaw & Foley), and Rudolph Eberstadt—and two personal references: Willard Richardson and John Wood, the lawyer who had established the Alcoholic Foundation and both non-alcoholic Alcoholic Foundation Trustees.

1948: During the Nevada-Northern California A.A. Conference, the San Francisco Examiner published an interview [right] with Bill W. The article, titled “AA Founder Tells Effort To Rescue Young Drinkers,” was subtitled “Alcohol Addicts Must Have Real Desire To Help Selves, ‘Bill’ Says in S. F.”

March 5 in A.A. History

1870: Emily Ella Griffith [left, c. 1905], who would become Bill W.’s mother, was born in East Dorset, Vermont, to Ella Brock and Gardner Fayette Griffith. The second of three children, her birth is documented in the 1870 U.S. Census, which lists her name as “Jane” and her age as “3/12” of a year. This census data was recorded on June 25, when she was three months and twenty days old.

1941: After reading Jack Alexander’s article, “Alcoholics Anonymous: Freed Slaves of Drink, Now They Free Others,” in The Saturday Evening Post, Robert M. MacW. wrote [right: letter] to the Alcoholic Foundation in New York City from his home in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, saying,

    Am greatly impressed with the working of this group[.] And would appetite [sic] any information you may be able to furnish me as to whether there is such a group organized in Pittsburgh, their address, or the requirements of organizing such a group.

    The Alcoholic Foundation would reply eight days later.

1941: The first Alcoholics Anonymous meeting in Boston, Massachusetts, took place at the Jacoby Club [left], located at 115 Newbury St., in the office of Dr. Lawrence M. Hatlestad, the club's non-alcoholic assistant secretary.
    In June 1940, Dr. Hatlestad had written to the Alcoholic Foundation, stating that he had read “your splendid book Alcoholics Anonymous” and declaring, “You have come upon something of real merit.” He noted that his club shared similar objectives and that some of its members were alcoholics who had stopped drinking. He expressed his eagerness to connect with A.A. members in Boston.
    Following the publication of Jack Alexander’s article in The Saturday Evening Post, Ruth Hock compiled a list of 31 inquiries from the Boston area to be contacted. Paddy K., who had been in contact with Ruth and Bill W. since 1939, had been trying to establish an A.A. meeting in Boston since as early as 13 November 1940. When Ruth was unable to locate Paddy, she sent the list to Dr. Hatlestad. Upon Paddy’s reappearance, something of a row ensured, partly due to the Jacoby Club’s willingness to accept outside contributions.
    Bill would travel to Boston “to straighten things out,” but ultimately, A.A. was banned from using the Club’s facilities.

1943: In his column for the Minneapolis Star-Journal, “In This Corner,” prominent local columnist Cedric Adams  [right] significantly boosted the profile of the local Alcoholics Anonymous when he wrote, in part, the following [left: full column]:

    Two years ago, this corner carried a simple announcement that A.A. was being launched in this area. From an initial membership of three, the group has grown to more than two hundred.

1945: In a short item titled “Alcoholics on the Air,” Time magazine reported on Detroit radio broadcasts of A.A. speakers on a program called “The Crutch” [left: WWJ broadcast tower, built in 1936]. The article appeared in the RADIO subsection of the ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT section [right: magazine cover, the item, highlighted in yellow]. The text of the item read:

    One of Detroit’s citizens stepped up to the microphone one night last week and told how he had “hit bottom” as an alcoholic. To underline his confession, some of the more melodramatic and sordid aspects of his past were dramatized. Then he told of his regeneration. Summed up the announcer: “Alcoholism is a disease … an obsession… an allergy.…”
    The man who “hit bottom” was the first in a parade of anonymous Detroiters who will describe their alcoholic pasts over WWJ every other Saturday (11:15-11:30 p.m., E.W.T.). The series is the first sustained air flight of the famed organization called “Alcoholics Anonymous.”
    Detroit A.A.s give credit for the broadcast project to 62-year-old William Edmund Scripps [a noted aviator], big boss of the Detroit News and WWJ. He was so impressed by A.A.'s reformation of a drunkard friend that he decided to do what he could to boost the organization's Detroit membership (now nearly 400).

March 4 in A.A. History

1891: Lois Burnham was born to Dr. Clark and Matilda Hoyt Spelman Burnham [right: all three] at 182 Clinton Street, a spacious brownstone in the affluent Brooklyn Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. At the time of her birth, Brooklyn was a separate city, not becoming a borough of New York City until 1898.
    Lois was the eldest of six children, followed by Rogers, Barbara, Katherine (Kitty), Lyman, and Matilda. Sadly, Matilda, who was sickly after a difficult birth, died before her first birthday. Lois struggled to understand this loss, but her mother could only explain it as “God’s will.”
    Lois’s father was a prominent physician who maintained his medical office in a back room of their home. Her grandfather, Rev. Dr. Nathan Burnham, was a physician, lawyer, and minister in the Swedenborgian Church. Lois’s mother came from an old aristocratic family^*, and the Burnham household included a cook, a maid, and a man who tended the fires, made repairs, and cared for the horses and carriage.
    Every spring, the entire household followed Dr. Burnham’s patients to Vermont, where they lived beside Dorset Pond (now known as Emerald Lake). There, Lois was a tomboy, enjoying fishing, swimming, sailing, climbing trees, catching frogs, and picking berries on long morning walks. It was at Emerald Lake that Lois first met Bill Wilson, and where he began to woo her.
    The Burnhams’ summer cottage, which they called “the Camp,” was near Manchester and Manchester Center, Vermont, where many of Dr. Burnham’s patients spent their summers. The Burnhams were social acquaintances of Robert Todd Lincoln, son of Abraham Lincoln, whose family summered at Hildene, their estate in Manchester [left: Hildene, Lincoln’s estate]. Nearby Manchester Village represented “old” money. Dr. Burnham, a champion golfer, co-founded the exclusive Ekwanok Country Club in Manchester with Lincoln and likely played there with notable figures such as former President William Howard Taft and Henry Ford.
    Lois’s father ensured that all his children received the best possible education. Lois began her schooling with kindergarten, a new form of preschool education imported from Germany. She then attended Friends School and Packer Collegiate (an all-girls school) for grades one through twelve, developing into a brilliant and artistically talented woman. She would eventually become the wife of Bill Wilson and, along with her friend and neighbor Anne Bingham [right], a co-founder of Al-Anon.

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^*Lieutenant Stephen Spelman (1745–1800) was the great-grandfather of Laura Spelman and the great-great-grandfather of Matilda Spelman. Laura married John D. Rockefeller Sr. and was the mother of John D. Rockefeller Jr. Matilda married Dr. Clark Burnham and had a daughter named Lois. This familial connection makes Matilda a third cousin of John D. Rockefeller Jr. (they share the same great-great-grandfather), and Lois his third cousin, once removed.

1941: Clarence S. [below left] wrote to Bill Wilson [below right, 1942], seeking help with what he termed a “revolution”: a movement to remove him as Chairman of the Cuyahoga County A/A [sic] Committee, which had been formed only two days earlier. The Cleveland members, it seems, were still upset about the articles published in the Cleveland Plain Dealer in the fall of 1940, which they thought Clarence had secretly arranged. At about the same time, a number of Cleveland members who objected to the Alcoholic Foundation’s call for contributions and refused to support the New York office.
    Clarence’s ego had clearly been wounded, as evidenced by what he wrote:

    They wanted to know how much the Plain Dealer pd. me. Why I didn’t put it in the kitty. Where did I get the authority etc. etc. etc. Not one kind thing said in my behalf. This from persons I had picked out of the gutter & worked on & gave unceasingly & unselfishly of fellowship & whatever I could. Experience then, the resentment & hatred has been there. They have gone out of their way on numerous occasions to embarrass me.…
    [P]ay no attention to this so-called Cuyahoga County committee as yet. Continue to send me the names as always, & they will be followed & taken care of in a conscientious manner as always.
    About the [Alcoholic F]oundation money plan, don’t concern yourself about that here. I wish I had known about it before [Herbert] Bert Taylor blew in. After this revolution subsides, I can get you all the dough for the foundation that will be needed from our part of the country. And believe me when I tell you I can get it where no one else can.

March 3 in A.A. History

1941: Dale A. [right] of Seattle, Washington—considered by many to be the founding father of Seattle A.A.—wrote to the Alcoholic Foundation in New York City after reading Jack Alexander’s article, “Alcoholics Anonymous: Freed Slaves of Drink, Now They Free Others,” in the March 1 issue of The Saturday Evening Post.

1947: Nellie E. “Nell” Wing [left, 1945], fresh from a two-year tour in the Coast Guard, took a temporary job as a typist at the Alcoholic Foundation in New York City, located at 415 Lexington Ave. Earning $32 a week [~$465 in 2026]. Nell had intended to save money for travel to Mexico to start a sculpting career. However, she would remain at the Foundation for 36 years, serving as Bill W.’s secretary and later becoming A.A.’s first Archivist. Her relationship with Bill and Lois W. evolved into one more akin to that of a daughter than an employee.

1954: The June 1954 issue [right] of the LULAC (League of United Latin-American Citizens) News reported that

Three members of the Montrose [Colorado] branch of Alcoholics Anonymous addressed the club [the Houston, Texas Jr. LULACs] on March 3, and gave an interesting explanation of the organization and function of A. A. The Juniors were very much impressed when they also spoke on the bad effects of abusive drinking especially among the youth of our nation. These speakers wound up their interesting talks with the answering of questions.

1963: To celebrate the release of the new French edition of Alcoholics Anonymous (Les Alcooliques anonymes) [left: 3rd French edition], aproximately 350 people gathered at the Montreal Botanical Gardens Auditorium. The new edition included eleven translated stories from the original English-language book, Appendix II (“Spiritual Experience”), eight stories from French-speaking A.A. members in Canada and Europe, the Twelve Traditions (translated from Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions), and selected extracts from Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age. Joe C., one of the translators, presented a copy of the book to Eve M., a G.S.O. staff member, on behalf of Bill W., A.A.'s only living co-founder. With financial support from A.A. World Services, Inc., the book was also distributed in France, Italy, Belgium, and Switzerland.

March 2 in A.A. History

1941: A meeting was held in the office of the Cleveland Switchboard Co. for the purpose of forming the Cuyahoga County A/A [sic] Committee. The meeting was held, and the motion carried. But a movement to oust Clarence S. [right] as Chairman had arisen, and he was voted out of the office of Chairman, just as he had previously been kicked out of A.A. during the Cleveland Group’s initial split. They then elected Bill H. as chair and sought to sever all ties with Clarence. 
    The announcement card for the meeting read as follows:

    MOTION by B___, second by C___ - that a CLEARING HOUSE COMMITTEE be formed, and that it be composed of two (2) members from each and every A/A [sic] Group in Cuyahoga County. This Committee to have NO AUTHORITY to commit, involve or bind any one or all of the Groups in Cuyahoga County in any manner whatsoever without referring proposed ideas, plans or propositions to each individual Group for its acceptance or rejection.
    MOTION was carried.
    COMMITTEE MEMBERS: Kindly conform to this important rule.

C[larence]. H. S――, Chairman.

1979: At the urging of Nancy M.-O., former Senator Harold E. Hughes [left: autographed photo of the two of them working together, c. 1970–80] appeared as a witness before the Senate Subcommittee on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse—a committee he had once chaired. She would later write With a Lot of Help from Our Friends, a book about her work with Senator Hughes.

March 1 in A.A. History

1940: In Brownwood, Texas, The Collegian, “official publication of the student association of Daniel Baker College,” printed an unsigned article titled “Down With Demon Rum” [right] concerning Alcoholics Anonymous. The article began:

    If you've been troubled with pink elephants in the dormitories or your fraternity house, fret no more, gentle readers. Demon Rum is about to be catapulted from whence he came.
    Here in New York a group of sixty brave souls who once gazed with affection on the wine when it was red, have at long last come to know the villain for what he is. What is more, they have organized a club called Alcoholics Anonymous; and the other evening, they were dined, but not wined, by John D. Rockefeller, himself.

1941: The Saturday Evening Post published Jack Alexander’s article, “Alcoholics Anonymous: Freed Slaves of Drink, Now They Free Others” [right: cover; below selected pages], which caused a national sensation. “Came then the deluge,” Bill W. wrote. The Alcoholic Foundation office in New York City was overwhelmed with 6,000 frantic appeals from alcoholics and their families. Within a year, membership skyrocketed from 2,000 to 8,000.
    Bill and Ruth Hock, A.A. National Secretary, sifted through the flood of letters, alternating between laughter and tears. It quickly became clear that they couldn’t handle the mail alone; form letters would not suffice. Each letter needed a thoughtful, personal response. Having anticipated a strong response, Lois W. had already organized typists into teams and scheduled those who could not type to answer phones.
    Despite their preparations, the response far exceeded expectations. Meeting attendance doubled within days, and newcomers began going on 12th Step calls to assist other alcoholics just weeks later. Ruth Hock, Margaret “Bobbie” B., Lois, and the volunteers worked tirelessly day and night for five or six weeks to respond to all the mail.
    The magazine’s decision to feature A.A. would have been enough to prompt editors nationwide to recognize the story as newsworthy, but the story went beyond mere reporting; it endorsed A.A.’s effectiveness. It is difficult for us today to grasp the imimmense excitement this article generated among A.A. members.
    The backstory: Jim B. [right] had just moved to Philadelphia and was trying to convince a local bookstore to carry the Big Book. The bookstore manager was uninterested, but a woman named Helen Hammer overheard their conversation. She spoke up, sharing that she had sent the book to her alcoholic nephew in Los Angeles, who had sobered up immediately and remained sober for three months. Still, the store manager was unimpressed. When Mrs. Hammer learned of Jim’s efforts to start a group in Philadelphia, she introduced him to her husband, Dr. A. Weise Hammer [left] (who would play a significant role in Philadelphia A.A. history).
    Dr. Hammer was a friend of Judge Curtis Bok^* [right, 1933], who had influence at The Saturday Evening Post. He persuaded Bok to have the magazine feature A.A. Bok then urged the editors to assign Jack Alexander, an experienced and cynical reporter, to write the story. Alexander was chosen for his hard-nosed reputation; he had recently completed a major exposé on New Jersey rackets and took pride in his skepticism.

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^*President Judge of the Court of Common Pleas, Curtis Bok has often been mistakenly described as the owner or editor of The Saturday Evening Post. In fact, the magazine was owned by Cyrus Curtis, who had purchased it in 1897 and founded the Curtis Publishing Company, serving as president from 1891 to 1922. The confusion likely stems from Bok’s relationships within the Curtis family. Curtis Bok was the son of Edward Bok—a former editor of The Saturday Evening Post—and Mary Louise Curtis—Cyrus Curtis’s daughter. Thus, Bok was the nephew of the owner, shared his given name with the owner, and his surname with the former editor’s.

February 28 in A.A. History

1937: Dick S.^* [near right] regained consciousness in Akron City Hospital after a binge. He later learned that his younger brother, Paul [center right], who had been sober for nearly eight months, had given him 5½ ounces of paraldehyde—more than twice the dosage recommended by Dr. Bob Smith [below right]. From that point on, Dick would remain sober for the rest of his life.
    His story, “The Car Smasher,” was published in the first edition of the Big Book, Alcoholics Anonymous, and outlined the four-step program he recommended:

First: Have a real desire to quit.
Second: Admit you can’t. (This is the hardest.)
Third: Ask for His ever-present help.
Fourth: Accept and acknowledge this help.

    He later revised his story for the second and third editions; it was retitled “He Had To Be Shown.”

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^*“The Car Smasher” begins with, “During the first week of March 1937,… I ended 20 years of a life made practically useless [by drinking].” In contrast, the second-to-last paragraph of “He Had To Be Shown” states, “On Sunday when I came to, it was a bad, wet, snowy day in February 1937…”. Weather records for Akron in February 1937 indicate that temperature ranges were likely too high and precipitation too low for any Sunday to be described as “a bad, wet, snowy day,” except for the 28th. Therefore, I conclude that the Sunday Paul referred to in “He Had To Be Shown” must have been the 28th.

1942: In Columbus, Ohio, The Columbus Group split into two groups. Fourteen members left to establish the Central Group at the Odd Fellows Temple, located at 24 W. Goodale St. This new group decided to install a phone and set up an office at the temple for Twelfth Step calls. Additionally, the Central Group was responsible for printing one of the earliest A.A. newsletters.

1942: Ruth Hock [far left] left the New York City Alcoholic Foundation office to marry Phil Crocelius; Margaret “Bobbie” B. [near left] took her place as National Secretary, A.A.’s second and last. Bobbie had been a professional dancer in the U.S. and Europe during the 1920s and, as Ruth noted, in the fashion of the 1940s, wore “tiny little hats and went tripping along in her high heels, but was a fantastic communicator.”

1947: The Naugatuck (Connecticut) Daily News reported that Edward McDermott, the executive director of Easy Acres in Newtown, a state sanitarium for neurotics, spoke at a meeting of the Waterbury Junior Club on the topic of “Alcoholism and Alcoholics Anonymous.”