Quick history of how AA started
Prompted from a comment by @helenS...
Bill W (Wilson) and Dr Bob (Robert Smith) are acknowledged as the founding fathers of AA. The date of founding is taken as 10 June 1935 the last day Dr Bob drank.
However you need to go back a little. Rowland H (Hazard) (politician and industrialist) tried to get sober on many ways including going to Europe for treatment by Carl Jung. Jung believed only way to cure him was for some kind of religious conversion.
On returning to the USA Rowland joined a Christian group based on first century Christian values called the Oxford Group. Another alcoholic who tried this approach to sobriety via Rowland was Ebby T (Thatcher) who then suggested it to his old drinking buddy Bill W. Bill got sober through help from Dr Silkworth and joining the Oxford Group. He then tried recruiting other alcoholics to the group with limited success.
He went on a business trip to Akron Ohio. The business venture failed. Bill desperately wanted a drink but instead he contacted a vicar asking for details of alcoholics who needed help. He then visited Dr Bob who was suggested as a hopeless case. It was during these visits Dr Bob stopped drinking and together they created the basis of the AA fellowship they gave to the world.
As an "anonymous" shorthand AA members call themselves "Friends of Bill W." to this day and the book Alcoholics Anonymous (published in 1939) is still the principal text members follow to gain and maintain sobriety.
Bill W (Wilson) and Dr Bob (Robert Smith) are acknowledged as the founding fathers of AA. The date of founding is taken as 10 June 1935 the last day Dr Bob drank.
However you need to go back a little. Rowland H (Hazard) (politician and industrialist) tried to get sober on many ways including going to Europe for treatment by Carl Jung. Jung believed only way to cure him was for some kind of religious conversion.
On returning to the USA Rowland joined a Christian group based on first century Christian values called the Oxford Group. Another alcoholic who tried this approach to sobriety via Rowland was Ebby T (Thatcher) who then suggested it to his old drinking buddy Bill W. Bill got sober through help from Dr Silkworth and joining the Oxford Group. He then tried recruiting other alcoholics to the group with limited success.
He went on a business trip to Akron Ohio. The business venture failed. Bill desperately wanted a drink but instead he contacted a vicar asking for details of alcoholics who needed help. He then visited Dr Bob who was suggested as a hopeless case. It was during these visits Dr Bob stopped drinking and together they created the basis of the AA fellowship they gave to the world.
As an "anonymous" shorthand AA members call themselves "Friends of Bill W." to this day and the book Alcoholics Anonymous (published in 1939) is still the principal text members follow to gain and maintain sobriety.
