The Founding of AA -
A Story in Pictures
In keeping with AA Tradition (Tradition Eleven), this website will not publish recognizable images of
AA members who are alive or recently deceased. All of the personal photos in this section have previously been
featured in publications of AA World Services, Inc, and are reprinted with permission. We will carry the story
of AA further as time permits us to develop this part of our site. The accompanying text is drawn from AA publications
(Pass It On, Dr Bob and the Good Oldtimers and AA Comes of Age) and recollections of oldtimer members.
It has not been approved by AA World Services, Inc or the AA General Service Conference. Every reasonable
effort has been made to insure the accuracy of the information contained here, but no guarantee is expressed or
implied.
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William Griffith Wilson (1895-1971), Co-Founder, Alcoholics Anonymous. Born in
East
Dorset, VT, Bill W served in Europe during World War I after marrying his childhood sweetheart
Lois
Burnham in early 1918. He later became a
successful stockbroker in
New York until alcoholism destroyed his career and nearly his life. Late in 1934, following a visit by his boyhood
friend
Ebby T, Bill had a profound spiritual experience while in
Towns
Hospital in New York. He continued his spiritual quest by attending
Oxford
Group meetings in Manhattan. He never had another drink. Bill spent much time over the next few months fervently
trying to pass on his new-found sobriety to drunks in the Bowery. Though not one of them remained sober,
Bill did.
Dr Robert Holbrook Smith (1879-1950), Co-Founder, Alcoholics Anonymous. Smith earned an M.D.
despite major drinking problems as a student. Though his medical career demonstrated great promise at times, alcoholism
had brought him to the brink of disaster by the mid-1930's.
Photo: Bill Wilson, c. 1960.
In April, 1935, Bill attempted to rebuild his shattered career by becoming involved in a stock-proxy battle
over a small machine tool company in Akron, OH. His venture was not successful, and on the Saturday before Mothers'
Day, 1935, he found himself in the lobby of his
hotel, lonely and fearful
that the cheerful sounds coming from the nearby bar were becoming far too attractive. Panicstricken at the thought
that he would drink again, he instinctively knew he needed another alcoholic to talk to. Almost at random, Bill
picked a
minister's name from the hotel's church directory, and through
a series of remarkable circumstances, a meeting was arranged for the next day with a local doctor - Dr Bob -
whose growing reputation for drunkenness was of grave concern to his friends.
Photo: Dr Bob, c. 1945
Dr Bob was a member of the
Oxford Group in Akron but did not find
sobriety until he met Bill Wilson in May, 1935. Bill's desperate telephone search had led him to
Mrs
Henrietta Seiberling, who knew Dr Bob from the Oxford Group meetings and was aware of his alcoholism. Henrietta
arranged a meeting between Bob and Bill in the
gatehouse of the Seiberling
estate on the evening of Mothers' Day. Bob agreed to meet for fifteen minutes, but the new friends talked for
six hours.