Aa history Lovers 2004 moderators Nancy Olson and Glenn F. Chesnut page

learn much from the older men who were glad to share their knowledge with

him. He began to perfect his own skills so that he might become a

specialist, a surgeon.

When his two years of internship were over he opened an office in The Second

National Bank Building, in Akron. This was in 1912. His offices were in the

same building until he retired from practice in 1948.

Completely out on his own now, and again free to do as he chose - some money

in his pocket and all the time in the world. It may have been that reaction

set in from all the work, the irregular hours, the hectic life of an intern;

it may have been real or imagined; whatever caused it, Dr. Bob developed

considerable stomach trouble. The remedy for that was, of course, a couple

of drinks. It didn't take him long to return to the old drinking habits.

Now he began to know the real horror, the suffering of pain that goes with

alcoholism. In hope of relief, he incarcerated himself at least a dozen

times in one of the local sanitariums. After three years of this torture he

ended up in a local hospital where they tried to help him. But he got his

friends to smuggle him in a quart. Or, if that failed, it wasn't difficult

for a man who knew his way around a hospital to steal the alcohol kept in

the building. He got rapidly worse.

Finally his father had to send a doctor out from St. Johnsbury to attempt to

get him home. Somehow the doctor managed to get him back to the house he was

born in, where he stayed in bed for two months before he could venture out.

He stayed around town for about two months more, then returned to Akron to

resume his practice. Dr. Bob was thoroughly scared, either by what had

happened, by what the doctor had told him, or both. He went into one of his

dry periods and stayed that way until the 18th Amendment was passed.

In 1915 he went back to Chicago to marry Anne. He brought her back to Akron

as his bride. The first three years of their married life were free of the

unhappiness that was to come later. He became established in his practice.

Their son Robert was born and life began to make a sensible pattern. Then

the 18th Amendment was passed.

Dr. Bob's reasoning was quite typical at this time, if not quite logical. It

would make very little difference if he did take a few drinks now. The

liquor that he and his friends had bought in amounts according to the size

of their bank accounts, would soon be gone. He could come to no harm. He was

soon to learn the facts of the Great American Experiment.

The government obligingly made it possible for doctors to obtain unlimited

supplies of liquor. Often during those black years, Dr. Bob, who held his

profession sacred, would go to the phone book, pick out a name at random and

fill out the prescription which would get him a pint of whisky.

When all else failed there was the newly accredited member of American

society, the bootlegger. A moderate beginning led to Dr. Bob's usual ending.

During the next few years, he developed two distinct phobias. One was the

fear of not sleeping and the other was the fear of running out of liquor. So

began the squirrel-cage existence. Staying sober to earn enough money to get

drunk...getting drunk to go to sleep...using sedatives to quiet the

jitters...staying sober...earning money...getting drunk...smuggling home a

bottle...hiding the bottle from Anne who became an expert at detecting

hiding places.

This horrible nightmare went on for seventeen years. Somehow he had the good

sense to stay away from the hospital and not to receive patients if he were

drinking. He stayed sober every day until four o'clock, then came home. In

this way he was able to keep his drinking problem from becoming common

knowledge or hospital gossip.

Through these mad years Dr. Bob was an active member of the City Hospital

Staff and often he had occasion to go to St. Thomas Hospital, where in 1934,

he became a member of the Courtesy Staff and in 1943, a member of the Active

Staff. It was during one of these visits to St. Thomas, in 1928, that in the

course of his duties, he met Sister Mary Ignatia.

The meeting seemed of no particular consequence at the time. Many Sisters

came to St. Thomas, then departed for duties elsewhere. Though neither of

them knew it, the meeting was to have great importance to them both in the

years to come. Sister Ignatia, like the others, never knew of the inner

turmoil with which this man was beset..."He just always seemed different

than the rest...he brought something with him when he came into a room...I

never knew what it was, I just felt it..."

So perhaps it was, then, that the Hand that moves us all was beginning to

speed up the events that led to Dr. Bob's meeting with the stranger.

Anne and the children now lived in a shambles of broken promises, given in

all sincerity. Unable to see her friends, she existed on the bare

necessities. About all she had left was her faith that her prayers for her

husband would somehow be answered.

It then happened that Dr. Bob and Anne were thrown in with a crowd of people

who attracted Dr. Bob because of their poise, health and happiness. These

people spoke without embarrassment, a thing he could never do. They all

seemed very much at ease. Above all, they seemed happy. They were members of

the Oxford Group.

Self conscious, ill at ease most of the time, his health nearing the

breaking point, Dr. Bob was thoroughly miserable. He sensed that these

new-found friends had something that he did not have. He felt that he could

profit from them.

When he learned that what they had was something of a spiritual nature, his

enthusiasm was somewhat dampened. Unfortunately his childhood background of

church twice during the week and three times on Sunday had caused him to

resolve that he would never appear in a church so long as he lived. He kept

that resolve for 40 years except when his presence there was absolutely

necessary. It helped some to find out that these people did not gather in a

church but at each other's homes.

That they might have the answer to his drinking problem never entered his

head but he thought it could do him no harm to study their philosophy. For

the next two and one half years he attended their meetings. And got drunk

regularly!

Anne became deeply interested in the group and her interest sustained Dr.

Bob's. He delved into religious philosophy, he read the Scriptures, he

studied spiritual interpretations, the lives of the Saints. Like a sponge he

soaked up the spiritual philosophies of the ages. Anne kept her simple faith

in prayer...and her courage - Dr. Bob got drunk.

Then one Saturday afternoon, Henrietta called Anne. Could they come over to

meet a friend of hers who might help Bob...

At five o'clock Sunday evening they were at Henrietta's door. Dr. Bob faced

Bill W. who said, "You must be awfully thirsty...this won't take us long..."

From the moment Bill spoke to him, Dr. Bob knew that here was a man who knew

what he was talking about. As the hours passed, Bill told of his experiences

with alcohol; he told him of the simple message that a friend had brought...

"Show me your faith and by my works I will show you mine..."

Slowly, at first, then with sudden clarity, Dr. Bob began to understand.

Bill had been able to control his drinking problem by the very means that

Dr. Bob, himself had been trying to use...but there was a difference. The

spiritual approach was as useless as any other if you soaked it up like a

sponge and kept it all to yourself. True, Bill had been preaching his

message at any drunk who would listen; he had been unsuccessful 'til now,

but the important thing was that by giving his knowledge away, he, himself,

was sober!

There was one more short binge for Dr. Bob after that talk. On June 10,

1935, he took his last drink. It was high time now to put his house in

order. With his quiet professional dignity, his ready humor, he got about

it.

Bill stayed on in Akron for several months, living with Dr. Bob and Anne. It

wasn't long before they realized that they needed another drunk to help, if

they could. The two men went over to City Hospital. They asked the nurse on

"admitting" if she had an alcoholic in the hospital. They were taken to a

room where a man lay strapped to the bed, writhing in agony, "Will this one

do?" the nurse asked. "This one" would do very well. That human wreck to

whom they talked that day and several times after, came out of the hospital,

sober. Bill D. became the third member of the little group...AA Number

Three!

Dr. Bob now was a man with a purpose and the will to live. When the fog

cleared out of his brain, his health had improved. He felt so good in the

summer of 1935, at 56 years of age, that he took Bob and Sue out to the

tennis courts one day. He played them six straight sets of tennis. The kids

were done in.

Anne began to live again, too. She was happy with her husband's new-found,

joyful sobriety. She was no longer friendless, alone. Her kitchen table was

almost always littered with coffee cups, a fresh pot-full sat waiting on the

stove. Her faith, her belief in prayer and divine guidance went far to carry

the men through that first summer.

In the year 1935, there were few men alive who would accept the fact that

alcoholism is a disease, which should be treated as such. Prejudice and

ignorance were some of the problems facing Dr. Bob as he set about helping

sick alcoholics with his professional skill and his new-found spiritual

understanding. City Hospital was often filled with drunks smuggled in under

trumped-up diagnosis. The oldtimers who were hospitalized during those first

years were admitted as suffering from "acute gastritis."

Since he was on the courtesy staff at St. Thomas, run by the Sisters of

Charity of St. Augustine, Dr. Bob felt that he might enlist the help of

Sister Ignatia. He knew that it had never seemed right to her that a drunk

should be turned away. She couldn't understand why a drunk on the verge of

DT's was turned away but a drunk with a bashed-in head was admitted. They

were both sick. They both needed help.

His first approach to her on the subject was casual. He didn't tell her much

nor did he make any promises. He just told her that he was trying to treat

alcoholics by a new method. He and some other alcoholics, he said believed

that alcoholism could be controlled by medical attention coupled with the

spiritual. His remarks, though brief, made sense to her.

It wasn't long before Dr. Bob brought in an alcoholic. Sister admitted him

as having acute indigestion. He was put to bed in a double room. Then Dr.

Bob told her quietly, "We'd like to have him in a private room in the

morning." As if it weren't bad enough to have an illegal admittance on her

conscience this man was asking for a private room! Morning found the patient

peacefully asleep, on a cot in the room where flowers were trimmed and

arranged for patients' rooms!
FOR HE IS THE ROCK UPON WHICH AA IS FOUNDED
After that more and more "acute gastritis" cases woke up in St. Thomas

Hospital. In August, 1939, Dr. Bob brought a patient to Sister for

admittance. So far as is known, he was the first alcoholic ever to be

admitted into a general hospital under the diagnosis: Alcoholism. Dr. Bob

never could remember just what the policy of the hospital was at that time,

nor did he recall ever having asked.

Since that August day there have been 4800 cases admitted into St. Thomas.

Until Dr. Bob retired, he visited the ward each day to give personal

attention to each patient. His cheerful, "Well, what can I do for you?" was

heard in the ward for the last time, on Christmas, 1949. On that day Sister

played the organ for him and showed him the beautiful new chimes ...talked

of her hopes of more beds and furniture for a lounge outside the ward. The

chimes tell the story of the bitter criticism of 10 years ago to the

complete co-operation from everyone connected with the hospital today. But

so long as Sister Ignatia goes about her duties on the admitting desk and in

the AA ward, whenever a drunk is brought in a call will come, "Sister, you'd

better come. One of your boys is downstairs!"

Dr. Bob and his first few red-eyed disciples continued to meet with the

Oxford Group. But they were a 'special interest' bloc. The unpredictable

nature of the alcoholic and his preoccupation with the earthy realities of

drinking and drunkenness, led the tactful Doctor to the idea of separate

meetings.

Without fuss or bother, Dr. Bob announced that there would be a meeting for

the alcoholics...if any of them cared to come. When the meeting came to

order, all of the little band were there. Dr. Bob put his foot on the rung

of a dining room chair, identified himself as an alcoholic and began reading

The Sermon on the Mount. Still not known as Alcoholics Anonymous, this was

the first Akron meeting for alcoholics only.

Word of the work being done in Akron began to spread to nearby Cleveland.

Men began coming over to be hospitalized in St. Thomas or City Hospital. The

growth of the group speeded up. By 1939, they were meeting in Akron's Kings

School. They had long since outgrown Anne's small house. Through all the

growth, the hurts that come with growing pains, the gossip, the little

grievances, Dr. Bob listened to them all.

Occasionally, he advised. He became the "father confessor" to the group. So

sacred to him were confidences, that he would not break them for anybody or

anything.

Anne used to tease him about being "so close-mouthed" that she claimed she

didn't know a thing that was going on. She laughingly told him that she

would divorce him unless he told her some of the things he knew...but she

was quick to retract her statement because she knew, even for her, he would

not break a confidence.

By 1939, there were enough men coming to Akron from Cleveland to make it

seem advisable to start a Cleveland Group. The first meeting was held in May

of that year. The break away from the Akron group brought with it

disagreements. The only thing that kept them on an even keel, say those

pioneers, was the sound wisdom of Dr. Bob. How he kept his sanity seemed a

miracle. There he was, they say, in the midst of a bunch of unstable people,

not yet dry behind the ears. It may have been because he would never allow

one man to speak ill of another unless that man were present, that the

Cleveland off-spring survived.

By the end of 1939, Cleveland had proved a big point in AA history. It had

proved, first that one group could break from another. This they proved

conclusively because by the end of the year there was not one Cleveland

group...there were three! The two splits had been brought about by

differences of opinion. It seemed that no matter what happened the group

activity would go on. Cleveland proved, too, that alcoholics could be

sobered up on what almost amounted to a mass production basis. By 1944, the

Cleveland membership was well past 1000. Dr. Bob's wise counsel was

right..."there's no use worrying about these things. As long as people have

faith and believe, this will go on."

In the years that came after that meeting on Mother's Day, 1935, Dr. Bob

gave freely of himself to all who came to ask for help, to seek advice...to

laugh or to cry. In so helping others, he began to rebuild himself.

Professionally, he became loved and respected by all who worked with

him...socially he was once again the kind, dignified man who Anne and their

friends knew and admired.

Dr. Bob, as Anne had known him to be, was possessed of calm professional

dignity which gave courage and heart to his patients. In the years to come,

this dignity, was to play a large part in the lives of the hundreds who came

to his door. Never given to loose talk, Dr. Bob controlled his tongue as

surely, as steadily and as potently as he did his scalpel. He used the gift

of speech with the same concise economy, the sureness of purpose, that went

into each deft movement of his surgeon's hands.

More often than not his observations were sprinkled with salty humor. Dr.

Bob had the rare quality of being able to laugh at himself and with others.

As much a part of him as his quiet professional dignity, was this keen sense

of humor. He spoke with a broad New England accent and was given to dropping

a remark or telling a riotous story absolutely deadpan. This sometimes

proved disconcerting to those who did not know him well, especially when he

referred to the poised, charming Anne, as "The Frail."

Seldom did he call his friends by their given names... it was Abercrombie to

those men of whom he was particularly fond - or Sugar to close women

friends...a friend in the loan business was Shylock. This tall "cadaverous

looking Yankee" who held his profession sacred and walked through life with

dignity would tell anyone who questioned him as to his hopes, his

ambitions...that all he ever wanted in life was "to have curly hair, to tap

dance, to play the piano and to own a convertible."

One of the very early Akron members says that the first impression he had of

Dr. Bob was of a gruff person, a bit forbidding, with a habit of looking

over his glasses. He gave the impression of looking right through to your

soul. This AA says that he got the impression that Dr. Bob knew exactly what

he was thinking... and found out later that he did!

When he met Dr. Bob for the first time, what was offered seemed to the new

man, a perfect answer to an immediate and serious problem... it was

something to tell a boss who, at the time was none too sympathetic to his

drinking. Dr. Bob knew that the man wasn't being honest with him, and he

knew he was kidding himself. No lectures were given, no recriminations. Dr.

Bob began to make a habit of stopping by the man's house after office hours.

About twice a week he stopped for coffee and the two men discussed

...honesty. Then Dr. Bob suggested that the man stop kidding himself. Their

discussion moved on to faith...faith in God. The new man went to his

employer and, for the first time, saw the practical power of real honesty. A

problem which had looked insurmountable, vanished, just melted away.

Dr. Bob always began his day with a prayer and meditation over some familiar

Bible verse, then he set about his work in "My Father's vineyard..." The

work in the "vineyard" was not easy in those years. No "preaching" would

have served, either to the alcoholics who came his way or to those skeptic

members of his profession. He began, now to make AA a way of life.

His life began to be an example of patience and serenity for all to see and

to benefit by if they so chose. It was too early in the years of education

on alcoholism to be able to speak of the disease above a whisper...Dr. Bob

and Sister Ignatia developed a little code...the boys on the third floor

were called the Frails, while the surgical patients were spoken of in the

most proper professional terms. Often while he went about the business of

washing up he had to listen in silence to bitter remarks from his fellow

doctors..."Too bad this hospital is so full that a fellow can't get a

patient in...always room for the drunks though -."

In the years to come he was to live to hear himself introduced as the

co-founder of "the greatest," "most wonderful," "must momentous movement of

all times..." For these tributes he was grateful, but he laughed them off

and upon one occasion was heard to remark..."The speaker certainly takes in

a lot of territory and plenty of time..."

In his drinking days, Dr. Bob was two people, two personalities. After his

return to sobriety he remained two personalities. As he made his rounds

through the hospitals he was the medical practitioner but as he entered the

door of the alcoholic ward he became, Dr. Bob, a man eager, willing and able

to help his fellowman. Those who worked with him say that as he left the

hospital each day they felt that two men went out the door... one a great

M.D., the other a great man.

Dr. Bob and Anne lived simply and without pretense in their modest home.

Here they shared the joys of parenthood, the sorrows, the companionship of

their friends. He was an industrious man, willing to work for the creature

comforts that he loved. He accepted with humility any material wealth that

came his way. Something of a perfectionist, he loved diamonds, not for

possession, but for the beauty of their brilliant perfection. He would go

out of his way to look at a diamond owned by another...he would go out of

his way, too, to look at a favorite view of his beloved mountains and sea.

If he had any pride in possession it was for big gleaming automobiles. He

owned, through his life, many of them. He treated them with the care that

their mechanical perfection deserved. The car that he probably loved the

most was the last one he bought just before the end...the convertible. The

car that symbolized a lifetime ambition. His friends will remember him in

the summer of 1950, at 71, speeding through the streets of Akron in his new

yellow Buick convertible - the long slim lines made even more rakish with

the top down. No hat, his face to the sun, into the driveway he sped,

pebbles flying, tires screeching, he'd swoosh to a stop! Fate, however,

permitted him only 150 miles of this joyous "hot-rod" driving. It was with

reluctance, that summer, that he gave in to his illness. For the forty fifth

year he returned to his home in Vermont...in the staid and sedate sedan..."I

won't be able to see the mountains so well...but my legs are a little long

for that roadster..."

Until the last summer his days were spent in the routine of the hospital...

his office and his club, for recreation. During almost all of his adult life

in Akron, Dr. Bob lunched at the City Club. In his drinking days, it was

often to hide away in a room until he was found by friends. But in later

years it was to enjoy the companionship of his good friends, some of whom

joined him in his new-found sobriety, others had no need of the help he

could give them...other than the pleasure of his friendship.

Noon would almost always find him at the same table in the corner of the