By the age of forty, William Wilson, a Wall Street analyst and hopeless alcoholic, felt he had reached a dead end. In 1935, after repeated hospitalizations, and having tried other remedies, he cried out, “I’ll do anything! Anything at all! If there be a God, let Him show Himself!” At that moment he experienced a sensation of bright light, a feeling of ecstasy, and a newfound serenity. He never drank again.  

Nevertheless, during a later trip to Akron, he felt a tremendous temptation to drink. Only by talking to another alcoholic, he believed, could he remain sober. He found his way to Dr. Bob Smith, a physician whose practice had been nearly ruined by his addiction to alcohol. They talked for six hours straight. It was the beginning of what would become Alcoholics Anonymous, a program that has saved the lives of countless people.  

In 1938, Wilson—or Bill W., as he became known—in keeping with the program’s emphasis on anonymity, wrote “The Big Book” that popularized the movement’s Twelve Steps. These began with a recognition of one’s powerlessness over alcohol; recognizing a higher power that can give strength; and a decision to turn one’s life over “to the care of God as we understood Him.” It was only later that a Jesuit priest, Fr. Edward Dowling, in a meeting Wilson called “a second conversion experience,” pointed out the similarities with principles of Ignatian spirituality.  

Bill W. died on January 24, 1971. Today there are 100,000 local AA groups around the world, with over two million members.  

“God is either everything, or He is nothing.” —Bill W.