September 30 in A.A. History

1939: Liberty magazine [near right: cover] published “Alcoholics and God” by Morris Markey [far right]. Bill W. thought the article “a bit lurid” and worried that the title would scare off alcoholics. The article generated “800 frantic inquiries,” all of which were answered by Ruth Hock. While letters arrived from across the U.S., only a few could be directed to the three existing groups in Akron, Ohio; Cleveland, Ohio; and New York City.

Charles B. Towns [far left], proprietor of Towns Hospital, had encouraged Markey to write the piece. Liberty editor Fulton Oursler [near left], the author of The Greatest Story Ever Told, became a close friend of Bill and later served as a Class A [non-alcoholic] Trustee of the Alcoholic Foundation, A.A.’s headquarters (as it was then called) in New York City, and a member of the A.A. Grapevine editorial board.

1955: A.A.’s General Service Headquarters in New York City distributed a 6-page flyer titled “The Structure and Services of A.A.” [right: front cover], written by Frank B. It included the first service structure diagram and summaries of A.A.’s five service agencies:

1. General Service Board of A.A., Inc.; 
2. General Service Headquarters;  
3. A.A. Publishing, Inc.; 
4. The General Service Conference; and
5. The A.A. Grapevine, Inc.

The description of A.A. Publishing, Inc. states:

The General Service Board, with the approval of the General Service Conference, has also granted to Bill [W.], as the surviving co-founder of the movement, a 15% royalty on sales of the A.A. book. These royalties represent Bill’s only income from A.A. sources.

The back cover [left] listed the Twelve Traditions in short form, as published in the November 1949 A.A. Grapevine.

1975: Hazelden Publishing released Bill W.: The Absorbing And Deeply Moving Life Story Of Bill Wilson, Co-Founder Of Alcoholics Anonymous [right: 1st edition cover], written by Robert Thomsen [left].

2003: Searcy W. [right], 93, died in Dallas, Texas, with 20,962 days (57 years, 4 months, 20 days) of sobriety.

In 1949, Searcy began establishing treatment clinics in Dallas (the Texas Clinic-Hospital for Alcoholism [left, c. 1990], where Ebby T. sobered up), Houston, Lubbock (all in Texas), and Carlsbad, New Mexico. Alcoholics came for a week and paid $125 [~$1,760 in 2026], all-inclusive. Then they went to A.A., and 75% supposedly stayed sober.

Searcy’s motto was, “Trust God, clean house, help others. And it doesn’t have to be done in that order!”