November 15 in A.A. History

1952: A memorial service for Dr. Bob S. was held at the 24th Street Clubhouse [right: interior meeting room] in New York City. A recording of his last talk was played, and a portrait of him was unveiled. Bill W. then addressed the gathering, beginning with these words:

Dr. Bob’s recorded voice has come down to us across the air since he died in 1950. Some may say that his actual voice is still forever [sic], but you and I know that is not so and that his spirit will be with us so long as this well loved society of ours endures. Now, I happen to be one who believes that people never die, that on beyond death there is another life and it could be that Dr. Bob is looking down upon us now, seeing us, hearing what we say and feel and think and have done in this meeting. I know his heart will be glad.

Dr. Bob was a chap who was modestly and singularly against taking any personal acclaim or honor but surely now that he is no longer with us he can’t mind, I don’t believe and for him I wish to thank everyone here who has made this occasion possible and the unveiling possible, with all the work and love that that has entailed. Again, I wish to thank each and everyone.

1960: Bill W. wrote to Howard C. explaining why A.A. rejected the Oxford Group, specifically due to its emphasis on the Four Absolutes [left: cover of The Principles of Jesus, by Robert E. Speer (1902), in which the Four Absolutes were first described]:

… As you so well understand, we drunks are all-or-nothing people.

In the old days of the Oxford Groups [sic], they were forever talking about the Four Absolutes—Honesty, Purity, Unselfishness, and Love. There we saw people going broke on this sort of perfection—trying to get too good by Thursday.

… There is another factor, too, which perhaps you have overlooked.

Absolutes in themselves are not necessarily destructive. Every sound theological system contains them. When we say that our destiny is to grow in the likeness and image of God, we are stating a healthy relation between a relative and an absolute state of affairs. Therefore when writing the Twelve Steps, it was necessary to include some sort of absolute value or else they wouldn’t have been theologically sound.…That could have been unfortunate. However, we couldn’t make them as promising and as misleading as we found them in the Oxford Group emphasis. So in Step Six and Seven, and in the use of the word God, we did include them.

1967: With the approval of the General Service Board, Bill W. sent a letter proposing a “World Service Meeting” to representatives from 13 countries and zones [right: A.A. Around the World—cover image from the 2022 World Service Meeting report]:

Australia	Belgium	Central America	Finland	France	Germany	Holland*
Mexico	New Zealand	Norway	South Africa	South American	United Kingdom

It read, in part:

… I am proposing that A.A. take first steps toward forming a world service conference. The time will come when our overseas population may well exceed that of the United States and Canada.…

There are many problems of growth and relations that call for an international exchange of experiences. The problems of public relations, of anonymity, of self-support, of relations with medicine and religion—these are all keenly felt in many A.A. countries. The problem of printing and distributing literature is another one that can best be solved by exchange of experiences and policies.

As a beginning, I propose a World Service Meeting—not a conference, since it would not be fully representative of world A.A.—to be held in the fall of 1969, and to run for three days. This meeting could be held in New York so that delegates would have access to the experience of staff members and board members, and delegates would have the opportunity of seeing a 30-year-old service office at work. To the meeting would come delegates from countries where the A.A. population was already considerable and where the problems of growth were already present. Probably less than 15 countries and/or zones would be involved in the First World Service Meeting.

Two delegates might come from each country or zone. One of these delegates should be the principal A.A. service head. The other could be the chairman of the general service board or committee and could be an A.A. or a nonalcoholic.

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^*I believe this was actually the Netherlands, since Holland is defined as two of twelve provinces in the Netherlands.

2015: Jay D. Moore’s Alcoholics Anonymous and the Rockefeller Connection: How John D. Rockefeller Jr. and His Associates Saved AA [left: cover] was published. According to the publisher, Lulu Publishing Services:

This book straddles the divide between personal story and period history. In his finely researched account, Jay D. Moore follows the life of a driven, genius stock analyst brought to the brink of insanity by alcohol. A second thread traces the story of a physician humbled and bewildered by the same struggle. Finally, the story traverses the path through life of an unimaginably wealthy man, telling how he decides to use his treasure to benefit others. It has been said that there are no new ideas, only history we have not yet learned. No new ideas were brought to the Fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous, for everything the co-founders and early members did had been done before. What they managed to change, however, was to stick to their knitting. The facts presented here help separate the truth from legend, as the story of Alcoholics Anonymous and the Rockefeller connection is presented with more depth and analysis than has been brought to the subject before.