December 29 in A.A. History

In 1946, Dr. Bob S. [near right] wrote a two-page note [below left] to Ed W. [far right], presumably upon receiving some gems or jewels from him:

My Dear Ed, –
    The [illegible] reached me safely & thanks a lot for them. My jeweller [sic] is taking them to NY some time next month to see what can be done with them most advantageously. I imagine that the red one will wind up as a pendant. It was swell of you to send them. I have enjoyed your little book very much & know that it will prove to be of a lot of help to many. I had a number of letters & cards from folks at camp, [illegible], McCombs, Dr. Bennett, [illegible] Schneiders, Muenknoellers, et al. Wish we could go up next year but have serious misgivings about it. It does not look now as tho we could. Am following your advice and leave in ten days for Florida for a month.
    Love to Hazel
        Most sincerely
            Dr. Bob

Dr. Bob’s reference to “your little book,” was to The Little Red Book: A Suggested Outline for Reference and Study of the Working Mechanics of the Twelve Steps [right: cover]. Ed was the primary author, while Dr. Bob was one of several contributors who assisted in its writing and editing.

December 28 in A.A. History

In 1890, Frank Horace C. [right], known as “Horace,” was born in Manhattan to Frances Moore and Joseph C. He was the second of four children, all boys. Horace would join Alcoholics Anonymous in December 1938 and become actively involved in a number of projects within the Fellowship.

In 1988, John Bolton “Captain Jack” S. [near left: as a young man] died [far left: obituary] in Portland, Maine, where he had retired. He became an oil tanker captain in the mid-1930s and achieved sobriety through Alcoholics Anonymous in 1946. He played a crucial role in founding what became the Loners Internationalists Meeting and its confidential bulletin, a publication for “Loners,” “Homers,” “Internationalists,” “Port Contacts” (who served as liaisons for Internationalists visiting their port cities), and “Loner Sponsors.” Alongside hundreds of Internationalists like him, he sailed the seven seas, spreading the A.A. message wherever they dropped anchor and contributing significantly to A.A.’s remarkable global growth.

December 27 in A.A. History

In 1893, Samuel Moor Shoemaker [right] was born in a second-floor front room of a rented house on Read Street in Baltimore, Maryland. He was the son of Ellen Ward “Nellie” Whitridge, who later became president of the Women’s Auxiliary of the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland, and Samuel Moor Shoemaker, Jr., who eventually served as chairman of the Board of Regents of the University of Maryland. His parents had met at Emmanuel Church in Baltimore, where Sam’s uncle was the rector.
    When Sam was two years old, the family would move to their country home, Burnside, located about ten miles [~16 km] north of Baltimore. For Sam, this was home throughout his life. Between 1860 and 1863, his grandfather had purchased thirteen tracts of land, totaling 467 acres [nearly 2 km²], that comprised Burnside—a beautiful piece of land nestled between two lines of gently rolling hills in the Green Spring Valley.

In 1957, Dr. A. Weise Hammer [left], 77, died [below right: obituary]. He was an early supporter of Alcoholics Anonymous in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Bill W.’s tribute to him in the May 1957 issue of the A.A. Grapevine provided the following “abbreviated list” of his contributions:

    Opened his home to all AA members—secured the Philadelphia Group its first meeting rooms—introduced us to Dr. Stouffer, another great friend-to-be, who was then Chief Psychiatrist at the Philadelphia General Hospital—secured us treatment and visiting privileges there—had AAs speak before the County Medical Society—along with his good wife, Helen, attended nearly every AA meeting for years—gave free medical and surgical aid to every AA who wanted it—visited other cities to talk about AA and paid the expenses of the Philadelphia members he took along—offered to buy the Philadelphia Group its first clubhouse (which had to be declined)—saw that his friend, Judge Curtis Bok, owner of The Saturday Evening Post, became interested in AA—and finally induced the Judge to assign Jack Alexander to do the famous article in 1941 that made our fellowship a national institution.

December 26 in A.A. History

In 1902, Clarence S. [near right] was born at 1280 E. 89th St., Cleveland, Ohio, to Charles [center right] and Jenny Patterson S. [far right]. It was a cold, gray winter morning, with snow and a brisk wind in the forecast. He was the youngest of three boys [left: S. family, c. 1907].
    On 11 February 1938, he would sober up in Akron, Ohio, and would have a falling out with his sponsor, Dr. Bob S., over efforts to enable Catholics to attend A.A. meetings. Catholic priests forbade parishioners from associating with the Oxford Group, with which Akron A.A. was deeply involved. When Dr. Bob refused to take action, Clarence started a new group in Cleveland on 11 May 1939, naming it the Alcoholics Anonymous Group after the newly published book. He sought publicity for A.A., resulting in rapid growth; invented the concept of sponsorship as we know it; distanced himself from the Oxford Group; focused on spirituality while avoiding religion; emphasized the use of the Big Book, Alcoholics Anonymous; and helped create the Cleveland Central Committee, which introduced the concept of rotation.
    However, Clarence’s youthful broadmindedness appeared to diminish over the years, leading him to become more rigid as he got older.

In 1940, The St. Louis Star–Times published a favorable article about A.A. with the headline, “Alcoholics Anonymous, Fraternity that Streamlined the Waterwagon, Has Formed a Group in St. Louis” [left].

In 2001, The Boston Globe published David Mehegan’s article “AA’s growing pains evident in revision of its Big Book” [right]. It noted that

    Until now, the Big Book had been revised only twice: in 1955 and 1976. Now the fourth edition is just off the press, and its painstaking revision is a window into the delicacy of tinkering with a book that many people revere as inspired scripture.…
    While there may be unanimity on the first 164 pages, there is none about the stories.…
    …in the [revision] committee, there was no consensus on the stories, which constitute 80 per-cent of the book. 
    So the committee decided to research [Bill] W――’s writings to find out his attitude toward the book—much as constitutional scholars dig into what James Madison or John Adams meant by “high crimes and misdemeanors.”
    They found, says Richard [the committee chair], that “Bill always saw the book as organic and dynamic, never locked in. The book was not for those of us who were already here. That was cold water for many. People who had been in AA for 30 years said, ‘But you can’t take out that story – it’s my favorite.’ But we had to say, ‘We don’t care. You’re sober now. We need to change it for the new people.’”

December 25 in A.A. History

In 1962, Paul H., Esq. [near right, 1956], 59, the last surviving member of a prominent Butte, Montana family, died of a heart attack in Memphis, Tennessee. He would be buried three days later in the family mausoleum in Butte [far right]. 
    His father, Daniel H. founded a department store bearing the family name in Butte [far left, 1901]. Paul was born in Butte, attended the University of Virginia, and was a Rhodes Scholar [right: The Kevin Review, Kevin, Montana, page 1 headline]. He studied at Oxford and became a lawyer. He had survived a botched frontal lobotomy in 1936, sobered up in Washington, D.C., in 1940, and in January 1948 dictated the first known account by Bill W. (from memory) of how he had written the Twelve Steps for the Big Book, Alcoholics Anonymous.

December 24 in A.A. History

In 1934, Bill W. met his first real prospect, Frederick Ernest B. [right, 1923], who would be known within A.A. circles as “the chemistry professor.” Since his discharge from Towns Hospital, Bill had been wandering the gutters of the Bowery, the “nut ward” at Bellevue Hospital, the corridors of fleabag hotels, and the detox unit at Towns Hospital, looking for alcoholics willing to try his approach to staying sober.
    Dr. Frederick E. Breithut was a prominent chemist, educator, and leader in 1920s America. He had served as president of the American Institute of Chemists from 1928 to 1932, headed Brooklyn College’s chemistry department, and contributed to the U.S. War Department’s Chemical Warfare Service as a Major during and after World War I (WWI).
    Amid disruptions to chemical supplies by Germany during the war, Dr. Breithut helped the U.S. achieve self-sufficiency in dyes, pharmaceuticals, and coal-tar products. In 1923, Commerce Secretary Herbert Hoover had appointed him as chemical trade commissioner to Germany; within months, he had sent a report on Swiss coal-tar statistics to Dr. Charles H. Herty, advisor to the Chemical Foundation. This report addressed critical U.S. dependencies on potash, nitrates, and synthetics.
    As president of the American Institute of Chemists (AIC), Dr. Breithut advocated for chemists’ licensing [left: The New York Times, 28 May 1928], better pay, and public recognition, including the awarding of the prestigious AIC Gold Medal [right] to:

	Mr. and Mrs. Francis P. Garvan, for establishing the Chemical Foundation [far left: headline, The New York Times, 29 May 1929, p. 3];  Mr. George Eastman, founder of Eastman Kodak and inventor of the roll-film camera [far right: headline, The New York Times, 17 February 1930, p. 12];  Mr. Andrew W. Mellon and Mr. Richard B. Mellon, founders, with their father, of Mellon Bank [near left: The New York Times, 24 Mar 1931, p. 19]; and  Dr. Charles H. Herty, president of the American Chemical Society, the Synthetic Organic Chemical Manufacturers’ Association and the Chemical Foundation [near right: The New York Times, 23 January 1932].

    He had shaped debates over professional standards while advocating for American chemical autonomy between WWI and WWII.
    At the same time, Dr. Breithut was involved in the founding of Brooklyn College [left: campus, 2016], New York City’s first public coeducational liberal arts college, in 1931. He had served as faculty chair of the organizing committee for the inauguration of Dr. William A. Boylan, the first prespresident of the college; planned and organized science curricula; headed the chemistry department; and chaired its building committee until “ill health” [right: letter, Dr. Boylan to Hon. Mark Eisner, 12 January 1937] led him to resign in 1937.

December 23 in A.A. History

In 1901, Bernard B. Smith [right, 1939] was born in the Bronx, New York, the third of four children of Isaac and Fannie Stuzen Smith, both Yiddish-speaking Russian immigrants. He would become a member of the Alcoholic Foundation Board in 1944, Chair of the Board of Trustees for the Alcoholic Foundation (renamed the General Service Board of Alcoholics Anonymous in 1954) from 1951–1956, and 1st Vice President of the General Service Board from 1956 until his death in late July 1970.

December 22 in A.A. History

In 1959, Frank Shaw, 73, died [right: obituary, The New York Times; funeral notice, The Bridgeport Post]. He had been an early supporter of Bill W.’s stock market theories, and married Elsie Valentine, a close childhood friend of Bill’s wife, Lois. 

In 2015, The Saturday Evening Post republished “Alcoholics Anonymous: Freed Slaves of Drink, Now They Free Others,” authored by Jack Alexander [left]. The republished version duplicated the original article [below left: 1st page] but included a note stating, “Jack Alexander introduced Alcoholics Anonymous to a national stage when this article was published on March 1, 1941.” Additionally, it featured an Editor’s Note:

    AA had its beginnings in 1935 when a doctor and a layman, both alcoholics, helped each other recover and then developed, with a third recovering alcoholic, the organization’s guiding principles. By 1941, the group had demonstrated greater success in helping alcoholics than any previous methods and had grown to about 2,000 members. But for most of North America, AA was still unknown. Following the March 1, 1941, publication of an article in The Saturday Evening Post describing AA’s extraordinary success, inquiries began to flood in, leaving the small staff of what was then a makeshift headquarters overwhelmed. Alcoholics Anonymous tripled in size in the next year and continued to grow exponentially. Today, 75 years later, AA claims 2 million members worldwide, 1.2 million of them in the U.S.…

December 21 in A.A. History

In 1981, United Press International published an article by Charles S. Taylor titled “First Year Crucial for Reformed Alcoholics” [left: from Dubois (PA) Courier Express, 30 Dec 1981, p. 8], reported on a study involving 439 alcoholics who were members of Alcoholics Anonymous and had been sober for at least one year. The study was conducted by Dr. LeClair Bissell [right], who, as President, led the American Society of Addiction Medicine^* and worked with alcoholics at Edgehill Newport [left], a treatment center in Newport, Rhode Island. 
    The article described the research as “the first long-term study of a large group of alcoholics” and noted it had “reached an encouraging conclusion—most chronic drinkers who can stay off booze for one year have a good chance at continued sobriety.” Dr. Bissell said that alcoholics who receive counseling for their problem and abstain for a year usually don’t touch alcohol again for up to seven years. She also observed that abstinence seems to help alcoholics stop smoking, reduce suicidal behavior, reduce encounters with the police and significantly lower hospitalizations for any reason. Dr. Bissell strongly criticized psychologists who try to return recovered alcoholics to “social drinking,” saying, “I think they’re killing a lot of people by encouraging them to return to drinking.”
    Dr. Bissell was also a member of the Carter Mental Health Commission’s Task Force on Alcoholism, founder of International Pharmacists Anonymous [right: logo], and co-author of The Cat Who Drank Too Much (1982) [left: cover].

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^*Misnamed as "American Society on Alcoholism" in the article.

December 20 in A.A. History

In 1849, Ella A. Brock [right], Bill W.’s maternal grandmother, was born to John and Nancy Bowen Brock, in East Dorset, Vermont. She and her husband, Gardner F. Griffith, would raise Bill from the age of about 10.

In 1945, Rowland Hazard III [left], 64, died of a coronary occlusion (heart blockage) while working in his office at Bristol Manufacturing [right: obituary, The New York Times, 22 Dec 1945]. Rowland had carried the spiritual message of the Oxford Group to Ebby T., who then passed it on to Bill W. His position as a top executive of a major corporation at the time of his death suggests that Rowland had managed to stop drinking again, despite several known relapses. However, some historians question whether he was truly sober at the time of his death.
    He had remained active in the Oxford Group and continued his involvement after it was renamed Moral Re-Armament (MRA) in 1938. Some early A.A. members recalled knowing Rowland from his occasional visits to the old 24th Street Clubhouse, which A.A. members had established in June 1940 in a former stable at 334½ West 24th Street in Manhattan. However, there is no evidence that Rowland ever joined A.A. or considered himself a member.

December 19 in A.A. History

In 1922, Lt. Junius C. [right, as a midshipman] and Marjorie Dickerson were married in Pike County, Mississippi. He would become a founder of Alcoholics Anonymous in Jacksonville, Florida.

In 1939, Kaye Miller, a nonalcoholic, held the first A.A. meeting in Los Angeles, California, at her home on Benecia Street in Westwood.
    Earlier that year, Kaye became involved with A.A. while trying to help her ex-husband, Ty, get sober. She visited Akron and New York City, attending meetings and speaking with members, including Bill W. in New York. After divorcing Ty and returning to Los Angeles by freighter via the Panama Canal, she began spreading the word about A.A. to newspapers and public officials. She fell in with two other nonalcoholics who were also trying to help parolees get and stay sober: Genevieve Dodge, a social worker, and Johnny Howe, a psychologist. They had persuaded the Superior Court to allow them to treat alcoholics at Los Angeles County General Hospital [left, c. 1941]. Kaye taught them about A.A. based on her experiences and the Big Book, Alcoholics Anonymous, which she had brought with her from New York. Early successes included Barney H. (or B.?) and Hal S.
    In December, Chuck and Lee T., members of New York City A.A., visited Los Angeles. Bill W. had given them Kaye's number, and they reached out to her. This prompted Kaye to organize an A.A. meeting. Besides Kaye, Johnny Howe, and three other social workers, attendees included Chuck and Lee T., Barney and Ethel H., Hal S., Chauncey and Edna C., Joy S., Dwight S., and Walter K. Afterwards, Kaye telegraphed the news to Bill W. in New York: “Los Angeles held its first meeting tonight. Fifteen present.”

December 18 in A.A. History

In 1917, the U.S. Senate voted 47–8 in favor of a joint resolution to override the veto by President Woodrow Wilson [right] of the Volstead Act, which the House had passed the day before. This Act, officially known as the National Prohibition Enforcement Act, aimed to amend the Constitution to prohibit “the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors within, the importation thereof into, or the exportation thereof from the United States and all territory subject to the jurisdiction thereof for beverage purposes.”^* It then proceeded to the 48 states for ratification. On 9 January 1919, Nebraska would become the 36th state to ratify it, and one year later, on 9 January 1920, it would officially become the 18th Amendment to the United States Constitution.

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^*Note that it did not prohibit consumption, possession, or production for personal use.

In 1934, Bill W. was discharged from Charles B. Towns Hospital for the last time. The charge for his one-week stay was $125 [~$3,000 in 2025], paid in advance by his brother-in-law, Dr. Leonard V. Strong.

In 1952, Hector C. wrote to the General Service Office (G.S.O.) in New York City from Buenos Aires, Argentina [left: location of Argentina and Buenos Aires], asking for help. Hector had been in treatment for alcoholism there since September. His letter immediately sparked a lively and ongoing correspondence, primarily with staff member Ann M., whom Hector came to consider his sponsor. (At one point, Ann M.’s first letter in this conversation was framed and displayed in Buenos Aires to commemorate the birth of A.A. in Argentina.)

December 17 in A.A. History

In 1895, Florence D. was born to Emma Alexander and Harvey D. in Marion, Massachusetts. Her mother would die in 1907 of carcinoma uteri, the most common form of uterine cancer, and by April 1910, at age 14, she would be living in Boston with her maternal grandmother, Anna Alexander. In 1917, she would marry Lawrence R. in Houston, Texas.
    In March 1937, as Florence R., she would join A.A. in New York City, experience several slips, and became the first woman in New York City—and the second woman anywhere—to achieve a notable length of sobriety in A.A. Her presence was likely the primary reason the publishing company, One Hundred Men Corporation, to be renamed Works Publishing, Inc. She would accumulate over a year of sobriety before writing “A Feminine Victory” for the first edition of Alcoholics Anonymous.

In 1937, Bill W. wrote to Rev. Willard “Dick” S. Richardson [right], who managed John D. Rockefeller Jr.’s private charities and served as his spiritual advisor and close friend:

    The problem is how best to get our message to the great number… if they only knew. How… to preserve sound spiritual construction, simplicity and spontaneity, at the same time making our experience as widely and quickly available as possible, is the conundrum.

In 1949, The Herald Saturday Magazine (Melbourne, Victoria, Australia) published John Holden’s article, “Drunkards have found the sober road” [left]. The article occupies nearly half of page 15 and features a photograph of Lillian R., the Hollywood actress who, along with her husband, “Jack” McG. [right], helped establish Melbourne’s first permanent A.A. group on 13 October 1947. At the bottom of the article, there is a cartoon credited to “‘The Grapevine’ journal of Alcoholics Anonymous.”

December 16 in A.A. History

In 1934 [15th? 17th?], Edwin “Ebby” T. [near right] returned to Towns Hospital to visit Bill W. [far right], who had experienced his “white light” spiritual awakening two nights earlier. Ebby heard Bill’s confession (5th Step) and gave him a copy of William James’ Varieties of Religious Experience. Bill later said that he read it “cover to cover,” acknowledging that it was challenging but that he grasped the content. He would later incorporate some of James’ ideas into the A.A. program.

Today in A.A. History—December 16–18

In 1977, Joe McQ. [far left] and Charlie P. [near left] conducted their first public study of the Big Book, Alcoholics Anonymous, which they called “The Big Book Comes Alive.” It was held at an unknown hotel in Lawton, Oklahoma, with 35 attendees.