Dr. Bob’s Farewell Simmered the Twelve Steps Down to Love and Service — Bill S.

About This Speaker Tape

This is a historic recording from the 1st International AA Convention in Cleveland, July 1950 — the moment AA formally came of age. Dr. Bob, speaking from a body weakened by seven months in bed and just months before his death, delivers a short, plain-spoken farewell. He warns against blousing the program up with Freudian complexes, reduces the Twelve Steps to two words — love and service — and urges members to guard the tongue and never grow too smugly complacent to help a less fortunate brother.

Bill W. then takes the podium for a long, statesmanlike address. He traces the dream from the book's last pages — that every traveling alcoholic would find a fellowship waiting at his destination — and says it has almost entirely come true, with AA now in thirty-four countries. He pays tribute to Anne Smith as mother of the first group and to Dr. Bob as the rock on which AA was founded, then tells the story of how AA reached Oslo through a Norwegian-American from Greenwich who sold his restaurant, and how it reached Dublin and London through similar single threads.

The centerpiece is Bill's recounting of his own story in Akron: the Mayflower Hotel lobby on a Saturday afternoon, panicking at the thought of a drink, running his finger down the church directory, the call to Henrietta S., the Mother's Day when Dr. Bob showed up too potted to drive, and the visit to AA number three in Akron City Hospital — the lawyer with the DTs who sat up in bed and walked out sober. Bill then narrates the 1937 meeting at T. Henry Williams' living room where the group voted against big money, the 1940 Rockefeller dinner where two billion dollars of guests got up and walked out of the room, and the slow emergence of the Twelve Traditions out of those hard lessons.

The tape closes with Bill reading the last paragraph of the Big Book — abandon yourself to a Higher Power as you understand that power, admit your faults, clear away the wreckage, give freely — and a benediction over a lei sent by the alcoholic lepers of a colony in Hawaii, a token from members who would never make it to any AA meeting off their island.

Topics

Timestamps

• 0:00 Serenity Prayer opens the convention; committee welcomes travelers from far places to Cleveland and Akron
• 2:30 Dr. Bob's farewell — seven months in bed, Twelve Steps simmered down to love and service, guard the tongue, never grow smugly complacent
• 7:00 Bill W. opens with the dream from the Big Book's last pages — now spread into some thirty-four countries
• 12:00 Tribute to Anne Smith as mother of the first group and Dr. Bob as the rock on which AA was founded
• 18:00 Oslo story — Norwegian-American from Greenwich sells his restaurant, hand-translates the pamphlet, plants the seed through a printer and a florist
• 26:00 Dublin and London — Irish-American vacation turns into a founding, Canadian metallurgist carries it to England
• 30:00 Mayflower Hotel — Saturday panic, finger on the church directory, Henrietta S. the only person with time for an alcoholic
• 36:00 Mother's Day meeting with Dr. Bob and Anne; the potted-plant story, followed by the hospital visit to AA number three with the DTs
• 44:00 1937 at T. Henry Williams' living room — eighteen members warn Bill that money, missionaries, and hired hands will spoil the work
• 52:00 Rockefeller dinner of 1940 — Nelson reads his father's decline, two billion dollars gets up and walks out of the room
• 60:00 Closing — lei from the alcoholic lepers of Hawaii; Bill reads the Big Book's final paragraph on abandoning to a Higher Power and trudging the road of happy destiny