Dick B.
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Articles
Prepare to Learn from Dr. Bob of A.A.
How to “Stick with the Winners”
and
What “Old-School” AAs Actually Did
By Dick B.
© 2012 Anonymous. All rights reserved
Introduction to 14 Resources for You to Study
Early A.A. Claimed a 75% Overall Success Rate!
According to following statement in the "Foreword to Second Edition" of Alcoholics Anonymous, found also in "the Fourth Edition of the Big Book, the Basic Text for Alcoholics Anonymous":
Of alcoholics who came to A.A. and really tried, 50% got sober at once and remained that way; 25% sobered up after some relapses, and among the remainder, those who stayed on with A.A. showed improvement.[1]
The statement above, found in A.A. General Service Conference-approved literature, echoes A.A. cofounder Bill Wilson's remarks at the "Rockefeller Dinner" on February 8, 1940:
To continue with what had happened out in Akron. By the time the book was published last April [of 1939] there were about one hundred of us, the majority of them in the West. Although we have no exact figures, in counting heads recently, we think it fair to state that of all the people who have been seriously interested in this thing since the beginning, one-half have had no relapse at all. About 25% are having some trouble, or have had some trouble, but in our judgment will recover. The other 25% we do not know about.[2]
And this claimed success rate was with “seemingly-hopeless,” “medically-incurable,” “last-gasp-case,” “real” alcoholics who thoroughly followed the early A.A. path.[3]
A.A. Cofounder Dr. Bob:
His Younger Years at a Glance
Dick B.
© 2010 Anonymous. All rights reserved
The A.A. Backdrop
The following quotes are taken from the A.A. General Service Conference-approved pamphlet titled The Co-Founders of Alcoholics Anonymous: Biographical Sketches: Their Last Major Talks (New York: NY: Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc., 1972, 1975)—Pamphlet P-53:
It is estimated that Dr. Bob, with the help of Sister Ignatia, guided some 5,000 fellow
alcoholics to recovery during his 15 years of loving ministry to them. [p. 8]
I [Dr. Bob] had refreshed my memory of the Good Book, and I had had excellent training in that as a youngster. [pp. 11-12]
. . . I [Dr. Bob] felt that I should continue to increase my familiarly with the Good Book . . . [p. 13]
. . . [W]e [Bill W. and Dr. Bob] were convinced that the answer to our problems was in the Good Book. [p. 13]
Dr. Bob’s Unusual Christian Training as a Youngster in St. Johnsbury, Vermont
The following information about Dr. Bob's upbringing in St. Johnsbury—where he was born (apparently at home) on August 8, 1879, and resided until at least 1898 when he graduated from St. Johnsbury Academy—summarizes in very brief space information presented in Dick B. and Ken B., Dr. Bob of Alcoholics Anonymous: His Excellent Training in the Good Book as a Youngster in Vermont (Kihei, HI: Paradise Research Publications, Inc., 2008).
A.A.’s Dr. Bob
The Truth I Wanted to Learn
Dick B.
© 2007 by
Anonymous. All rights reserved
The Challenging Search For The Real Dr. Bob
When I first arrived in A.A. in the spring of 1986, if anyone had mentioned the name “Dr. Bob,” the remark would either have passed me by. Or I would have asked, “Who is he?” I didn’t know, and I hadn’t heard—and not for quite some time thereafter.
Then the young man, now dead of alcoholism, asked me if I knew A.A. had come from the Bible. When I answered, “No.” He suggested I read DR. BOB and the Good Old Timers and also remarked that the A.A. pioneers had been so interested in studying the Bible that they wanted to call A.A. “The James Club.” And I won’t repeat what I’ve since written about The Akron Genesis of A.A., The Good Book and The Big Book, Dr. Bob and His Library, The James Club, the AA of Akron pamphlets, and all the rest. But there was still a gaping hole in my knowledge of what Dr. Bob himself had meant when he said he had “refreshed” his memory of the Bible and had received “excellent training” in that as a youngster. He had also spoken of his four-times-a-week attendance at church, and also of his participation in Christian Endeavor.