December 20 in A.A. History

In 1849, Ella A. Brock, Bill W.’s maternal grandmother, was born to John and Nancy Bowen Brock, in East Dorset, Vermont. Ella and her husband, Gardner F. Griffith, would raise Bill from the age of about 10.

In 1945, Rowland Hazard III, 64, died of a coronary occlusion (heart blockage), while at work in his office at Bristol Manufacturing.
    Rowland had carried the spiritual message of the Oxford Group to Ebby T., who then carried it to Bill W.
    The fact that he was a top executive of a major corporation at the time of his death suggests that Rowland had stopped drinking again, despite several known relapses. Nonetheless, some historians question whether he died sober. He had stayed active in the Oxford Group and remained so after it changed its name to Moral Re-Armament (MRA) in 1938. Some early A.A. members said they knew Rowland from his occasional visits to the old 24th Street Clubhouse, which A.A. members had established during June 1940 in a former stable at 334½ West 24th Street in Manhattan. There is no evidence that Rowland ever joined A.A. or considered himself a member.