October 28 in A.A. History

1918: Bill W. [right: in France, 1919] arrived in France with Battery C, 66th Artillery, Coast Artillery Corps (C.A.C.). The Great War (World War I) would end just 14 days later, on 11 November at 11:11 a.m., but Bill would not return home until May 1919.

1919: The U.S. Senate voted 65–20 to override President Wilson’s veto of the Volstead (National Prohibition) Act the day before; the House had also voted to override on the same day. Sponsored by the Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Representative Andrew Volstead [left] of Minnesota, the act implemented the 18th Amendment, which prohibited “intoxicating liquors” without providing a clear definition.

Some members of Congress believed this referred only to hard liquor. However, Wayne Wheeler [right], the head of the Anti-Saloon League, who had actually written the legislation, had crafted it to define intoxicating liquors as any beverage containing more than 0.5% alcohol. The legislation made it illegal to “manufacture, sell, barter, transport, import, export, deliver, furnish, or possess” such beverages, though it did not prohibit their consumption.

1936: William “Bill” C. [left], 36, committed suicide at the home of Bill and Lois W., located at 182 Clinton St., Brooklyn, while the couple was in Maryland visiting Fitz M. and his wife.

Bill C. had been living with the W――s for nearly a year and had been left in charge of the house. A brilliant lawyer from Canada, he worked for a prominent law firm by day and played bridge for money by night. The W――s had rarely seen him and did not know him as well as they did most of their other house guests. His gambling appeared to be an even greater obsession than his drinking.

Bill W. returned home first. Upon opening the front door, he smelled gas. In the kitchen upstairs, he found Bill C.’s body on the floor with a tube from the stove’s gas jet in his mouth. He had been dead for several days. Lois arrived the following day to find that her husband had already taken care of every detail
[left: C―― family burial monument; near right: Daily News article from 29 Oct; far right: Ottawa Journal obituary, 29 Oct.]..

It took several months for Bill and Lois W. to realize that Bill C. had been selling their personal belongings and dress clothes, which were hung in a closet near the hallway bedroom he occupied. Among the missing items were Bill W.’s dress suit, his evening jacket, Lois’s black velvet evening wrap lined with white velvet, and several evening gowns. Suitcases were also missing. These were the relics of the W――s’ once affluent lifestyle. Bill C.’s remorse for these thefts may have contributed to his decision to take his own life.

1940: Doherty “Dohr” S. [left], a retired local businessman, Irish Catholic, and devoutly religious, founded the first Alcoholics Anonymous group in Indianapolis, Indiana. Desperate to stop drinking, Dohr had reached out to the Cleveland group for help. In response, Clarence S. [near right, 1942] had sent Irwin M. [far right], whom Clarence sponsored, to make a 12th-step call on Dohr and guide him in starting this group.

1988: Sociologist Milton A. Maxwell [left], PhD, 81, died. He had served as a Class A (non-alcoholic) Trustee on the General Service Board from 1971 to 1982, including the last four years as Chairman; he had also been an original member of the Trustees’ Archives Committee.

October in A.A. History—day unknown

1959: The A.A. Grapevine [right: cover] published its second annual international issue.

1960: The A.A. Grapevine [left: cover] published a third annual international issue with stories from South Africa, Northern Rhodesia, the Congo, Japan, Indonesia, New Guinea, Tasmania, Australia, Cuba, Trinidad and Jamaica, Saudi Arabia, West Germany, Denmark, Holland, Finland, Ireland, Scotland, and England.