Bill W.

William Griffith Wilson (commonly known as Bill Wilson or Bill W.), was a co-founder of the mutual-help group Alcoholics Anonymous. The other co-founder was Dr. Bob Smith. His wife, Lois Wilson also founded Al-Anon, a group dedicated to the friends and family of alcoholics.

Related Topics:
Alcoholics Anonymous - Bob Smith - Lois Wilson - Al-Anon - Alcoholics

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Wilson was born on 26 November 1895 in East Dorset, Vermont. After a troubled childhood, he became an alcoholic at age 22. In the 1920s he was one of the first stock analysts and became quite rich until the market crashed, mainly as a result of the insider trading schemes that he was involved with himself. Plunged into poverty, his drinking only became worse.

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26 November - 1895 - East Dorset - Vermont

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While recuperating from alcoholism in a hospital, he had a religious vision, after which he never drank another drop of alcohol. He was inspired to help others caught in a similar situation. This became the inspiration for Alcoholics Anonymous, founded on the notion that "Only an alcoholic can help another alcoholic." In 1941, when the Saturday Evening Post ran an article on the group, its popularity took off.

Related Topics:
1941 - Saturday Evening Post

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As the movement grew rapidly, Wilson and the A.A. fellowship came to a mutual decision to decrease his involvement in accordance with the A.A. tradition that principles come before personalities. Wilson had been promoting niacin as a potential cure for alcoholism, which was agreed to be an "outside issue". He refused numerous honors during his life, including an honorary degree from Yale University, and refused to allow himself to be on the covers of magazines. He was very reluctant to avoid fame in this way and only did so under the pressure of A.A. He was known to pace his office complaining that he had done so much for alcoholics and not gotten enough credit for it.

Related Topics:
Niacin - Yale University - Magazines

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Later in his life Wilson became a heavy smoker and eventually got emphysema. He also was a womanizer, and on at least one occasion hired one of his mistresses to work at A.A., only to have the Foundation board fire her to stave off a scandal.

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Wilson lapsed into depression, and began psychiatric therapy. He eventually found himself at Trabuco College in California, where he became friends with Aldous Huxley and Gerald Heard, the founder of the College, and Heard guided Wilson through a fruitful LSD experience. Wilson said it enabled him to re-experience a peak spiritual experience he had had years before. He became a proponent of the substance, eventually trying to have it distributed at A.A. meetings, a point which became moot when the government declared it illegal.

Related Topics:
Aldous Huxley - Gerald Heard - LSD

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Wilson also delved into the occult, holding seances in his home. His wife later claimed that, with the help of spirits, they levitated tables and performed other feats.

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Wilson died of emphysema and pneumonia on 24 January 1971 in Miami, Florida. While on his deathbed he had hallucinations and fell into a state of mental disrepair. The maid of the house eventually left out of fear of Wilson's ravings. It is rumored that he requested a drink on his deathbed and was refused.

Related Topics:
Emphysema - Pneumonia - 24 January - 1971 - Miami - Florida

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The phrase "Friends of Bill W." is sometimes a code for Alcoholics Anonymous.

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Bill Wilson's story and his eventual founding of AA was dramatized in the 1989 TV movie My Name is Bill W., starring James Woods and James Garner.

Related Topics:
1989 - TV movie - James Woods - James Garner

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