August 10 in A.A. History

1940: With the outbreak of World War II, Cmdr. Junious Lee C. [right] was recalled to the Navy to serve as First Executive Officer in charge of the Aviation Trades Schools at the soon-to-be-commissioned Naval Air Station in Jacksonville, Florida. [left: Aerial view of Naval Air Station, Jacksonville, Florida (1943)]

An Annapolis graduate from the Class of 1918 and a native of McComb, Mississippi, he had retired early to Pasadena, California—in part because of his excessive drinking. His wife, Marie, learned of a fledgling organization called Alcoholics Anonymous and wrote to the Alcoholic Foundation in New York City for help. Ruth Hock sent her the address of the Los Angeles group, where Marie bought a copy of the Big Book, Alcoholics Anonymous. Junious got sober in the Los Angeles group and went on to become a key figure in establishing A.A. in Florida.

2015: To commemorate the 125th anniversary of the birth of E. M. “Bunky” Jellinek [right, at Yale Summer School of Alcohol Studies], Judit Hajnal Ward posted an editorial in the Jellinek Special Anniversary issue of the Center of Alcohol Studies (CAS) Information Services Newsletter. Co-authored by Judit H. Ward and William Bejarano, the piece was posted to the “Secrets from the Past” blog within the Rutgers University Alcohol Studies Archive. It included the following reflection:

In remembrance of Jellinek, the first questions should be, as suggested by Thelma Pierce Anderson, Jellinek’s ex-wife [color in original],

Which Jellinek are we talking about? Bunky, the man? Bunky, the scientist? Bunky, the humanitarian? Bunky, the screwball? Bunky, the kind? the ruthless? the genius? (Anderson to Keller, August 22, 1984)

This special issue of the Center of Alcohol Studies Information Services Newsletter aims to present Jellinek’s colorful personality through his own words, deeds, and scholarship, coupled with thoughts and opinions from some leaders of the field. Our goal is to show that Jellinek was everything but the average researcher. Letters, memories, and articles (by him and about him) outline a controversial scholar. He might have been scorned by many and idolized by others, but no one could just ignore him and what he did, whether as a charming gambler in Hungary or an alcohol scientist in the United States.

E. M. Jellinek more than others, saw “the big picture” regarding what was necessary to establish a beachhead for mainstream science’s cultural “ownership” of the nation's alcohol-related concerns in the post-Repeal period. (Roizen, 2014, p. 78)

[Left: highlights of Jellinek’s work from the 2014 SALIS conference; right: timeline of Jellinek’s life.]

August in A.A. History—day unknown

1981: Distribution of the Big Book, Alcoholics Anonymous, surpassed three million (3,000,000) copies.

2007: The Московские Начинающие (Moscow Beginners) [left: their logo] and the Доверие (Trust) A.A. group in Kirov, Russia, celebrated their 20th and 10th anniversaries, respectively.

2010: Mongolian A.A. (MAAS) [right: Mongolian A.A. logo superimposed over Mongolian flag] held its 4th National Conference and celebrated the 12th anniversary of A.A. in Mongolia, with the theme “Responsibility.” Following this conference, the 2nd MAAS [General Service] Conference took place, during which delegates elected a general manager and three trusted servants and established a [general] service office.