On This Day: Bill Wilson Founds Alcoholics Anonymous

According to American Heritage, the story goes that Dr. Robert Smith claimed he only needed one last drink—to steady his hand on the job—before he and his friend Bill Wilson set out to cure alcoholism. Amazingly, the beer did turn out to be Smith’s last.

The two men—both alcoholics—had met in Akron, Ohio, where Wilson was traveling for business. They met through the Oxford Group, an establishment founded by Lutheran minister Dr. Frank Buchman, which promoted waiting for divine guidance in every aspect of life. Wilson had already gotten sober with help from the Oxford Group; when he met Smith, he had a profound impression on him. Smith “found himself face to face with a fellow sufferer who had made good,” the official Alcoholics Anonymous Web site reports.

Both men began devoting their free time to reforming other alcoholics at Akron’s City Hospital, and were able to help one man achieve sobriety. “Though the name Alcoholics Anonymous had not yet been coined, these three men actually made up the nucleus of the first A.A. group,” according to A.A.

In 1935, a second group of alcoholics formed in New York followed by a third group in Cleveland in 1939. Through the group, Wilson “emphasized that alcoholism was a malady of mind, emotions and body,” according to A.A. It took more than four years for the three founding groups to help 100 alcoholics achieve recovery. 

In 1939, the group published its textbook, “Alcoholics Anonymous.” Written by Wilson, the book explained the group’s philosophy, including the now well-known 12 steps of recovery.

Alcoholics Anonymous continued to grow, spreading across the United States and Canada. According to the A.A. Web site, by 1950, there were 100,000 recovered alcoholics worldwide. Also in 1950, A.A. held its first international convention in Cleveland. Smith spoke at the meeting, delivering what would be his last speech to fellow A.A. members; he died later that year.

Early on, A.A.’s success was noted in many magazines and newspapers. In 1940, Time magazine commented on a dinner hosted by John D. Rockefeller: “No cocktails were served, for several of Mr. Rockefeller's guests were members of ‘Alcoholics Anonymous,’ a widespread, publicity-shy group of one-time guzzlers who have cured themselves.”

Alcoholics Anonymous continues to grow today. Due to the fact that the group doesn’t keep formal membership lists, it is difficult to obtain accurate figures on membership. The A.A. Web site estimates that there are more than 55,000 groups and roughly 1.2 million members in the U.S. alone.

A.A. is a fellowship, although it does not affiliate with one particular religious domination. In a pamphlet titled “This Is A.A.,” available on the Web site, the group is outlined and defined. “We are united by our common problem, alcohol,” according to the pamphlet. “Meeting and talking and helping other alcoholics together, we are somehow able to stay sober and to lose the compulsion to drink, once a dominant force in our lives.”

The group’s anniversary is celebrated yearly in Akron; 2009 marks the 74th anniversary of A.A. A Founders’ Day celebration is scheduled for the weekend of June 12, according to the Akron Intergroup Council of Alcoholics Anonymous. Various meetings and activities will take place throughout the weekend.

Wilson grew up in Vermont, the son of a hard-drinking father. His parents both abandoned him when he was ten, leaving him with his maternal grandparents.

According to a Time magazine profile, Wilson drank first as a soldier and then as a businessman, “to alleviate his depressions and to celebrate his Wall Street success.” By 1933, he and his wife were living with her parents in Brooklyn, N.Y., and Wilson’s drinking had made him unemployable.

Getting sober was the first stop in turning his life around. Helping fellow alcoholic Smith was the second step, and paved the way for the founding of Alcoholics Anonymous. According to Time magazine, “As Alcoholics Anonymous grew, Wilson became its principal symbol.” Throughout his life with the group, “he clung to the principles and the power of anonymity,” and declined Time’s offer to put him on the magazine’s cover—“even with his back turned.”

Wilson, a longtime smoker, died in 1971 of pneumonia and emphysema in Miami, where he had traveled for treatment.