Month & day unknown
1945: Bob Valentine, an A.A. member from the U.S., was in Rio de
Janeiro
[left: aerial view, 1945], Brazil, when he met another American named Lynn Goodale. After their conversation, Lynn decided to get sober. Upon returning
to the U.S., Bob shared Lynn’s contact information from Brazil with the
Alcoholic Foundation office in New York City, most likely with Bobbie
Burger, who was A.A.’s National Secretary at that time.
1946: The New York Intergroup published its first list
[right]
of A.A. meetings in and around New York City. The list included a total of
30 meetings held each week, comprising 20 open meetings, 9 closed meetings,
and 3 luncheons “for A.A. members, friends and guests.”
1946: Drs. C. Dudley Saul [far left]
and C. Nelson Davis [near left]
opened the first private alcohol treatment center in the United States,
known as the C. Dudley Saul Clinic, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Dr. Davis
assumed the role of Physician-in-Charge. After Dr. Saul’s death in 1947, Dr.
Davis relocated the clinic to Malvern, Pennsylvania, renaming it The Malvern
Institute. The institute still provides treatment for alcoholics to this
day.1946: The first permanent A.A. group in Richmond, Virginia, founded in 1941, opened spacious clubrooms on Grace Street.
1946: Judson B. made the initial inquiry from Alaska to the Alcoholic
Foundation office in New York City after he read about A.A. in a Reader’s
Digest article. Despite his efforts, Jud was unable to stay sober. In the
same year, the Sourdough Group was started in Anchorage
[right, 1945]
by Jay B. and Shielan R., the first A.A. group in the state with a
membership peaking at six individuals. Regretably, the majority of members
were transient, and Shielan, who was one of them, eventually left for the
lower 48 states, resulting in the group disbanding.
Year, month & day unknown
c. 1945: When Dr. Bob S.’s son, Lt. Robert R. “Smitty” S.
[far left, at Mount Farm, England, after his first combat mission, June
1943], returned from military service in World War II, A.A. member Paul S.
[near left]
helped him secure a job as a service manager at a car dealer-ship in
Cleveland, Ohio.c. 1945: During World War II, a deserter from a U.S. warship that had docked in Cape Town, South Africa arrived, “quite by chance,” at Imperial Military Hospital, Baragwanath (later renamed Johannesburg General Hospital)
[right, c. 1930–45].*
He was “drunk as a lord and with a suitcase, inside of which was nothing but
AA [Alcoholics Anonymous] literature from the US.” Although the fate of the
deserter remains unknown, Sister Maxwell, a Catholic nurse “who maintained
alcoholic ward” at that hospital, “accepted without conflict the newish
concept that it [alcoholism] is a disease.” She “held on to and used” this
literature “to form her own style of AA.” Sister Maxwell, despite not being
an alcoholic herself, deeply empathized with those who were. Her method
“helped several dozen alcoholics to sobriety on this basis.”
*
The distance, in a straight line, from Cape Town’s harbour to the Imperial
Military Hospital is 775.26 miles (1,247.66 kilometers).
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