June 28 in A.A. History

1935: Dr. Bob S. [near right] and Bill W. [center right, 1937] first visited Bill D. [far right] at Akron City Hospital in Ohio. Bill D.’s story, “Alcoholic Anonymous Number Three,” appears in the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th editions of the Big Book, Alcoholics Anonymous. A prominent Akron attorney, Bill D. had been hospitalized for his drinking eight times in the first half of 1935 alone.
    Following their initial visit, Dr. Bob and Bill W. saw Bill D. daily.^* It took about five days for him to admit he could not control his drinking. He was discharged on July 4 and, within a week, returned to court sober to argue a case. The day Dotson left the hospital marks the founding of Akron's Group #1, A.A.’s first group. He later served as a Panel 1 Delegate for Ohio at the first General Service Conference in 1951.

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^*Edgar R. [left] who sobered up (at least temporarily) later that summer, claimed to have been present with Dr. Bob and Bill W. for at least one of these visits.

1940: Works Publishing, Inc. formally acquired the assets and liabilities of “William G. W――, doing business as Works Publishing Company, of New York City, N.Y.” [left: copyright assignment]. This acquisition included the copyright to Alcoholics Anonymous, known as the Big Book. However, it was later discovered that this copyright was never valid because some pre-publication multilith manuscript copies of the book had been distributed without any indication that they were “ON LOAN.”

1944: The photo at right was taken of bridge players in the Alcoholics Anonymous clubroom in Manhattan.

1961: Irwin Sydney “Irv” Meyerson, 63, died in Los Angeles, California [left: gravestone].

Today in A.A. History—June 28–30

1955: Most sessions of the 5th General Service Conference (GSC) were held at the Jefferson Hotel [right, 1940s] in St. Louis, Missouri.
    The final session, the only public one ever held, took place at the 2nd International Convention of Alcoholics Anonymous, on the stage of the Kiel Auditorium [left, 1997] in St. Louis on 3 July (see entry for that date). This marked the end of the GSC experiment and established a lasting component of the A.A. General Service Structure that remains to this day.

A.A. History—month & day unknown

1929: [Spring; Pass It On says sometime in 1930] Charles B. Towns [near right] hired Dr. William Duncan Silkworth [far right] to run the alcohol rehabilitation program at Towns Hospital [left], located at 292–3 Central Park West in Manhattan. Silkworth’s salary was $40 per week [~$779 in 2026], which Bill W. later described as “pitiful pay, something like $40 a week and board.”

1929: [Fall] After the stock market crash of late October, Bill and Lois W. were forced to leave their “fine apartment” at 38 Livingston St. [right, c. 1940] in Brooklyn. Like many investors at the time, Bill had bought on margin and incurred significant losses. Fortunately, they managed to sublet it for part of the remaining lease term, though at a reduced rate. Subsequently, they moved back in with Lois’s parents at 182 Clinton St. in Brooklyn.