Jack Alexander

There is a name in the history of AA that is, I believe, not meant to be kept anonymous because Mr. Alexander was not a “member” of AA rather, he was instrumental in AA’s growth another way.

The brochure “the Jack Alexander article about AA” from General Services contains the complete article written for The Saturday Evening Post in 1941 and there is a reproduction at Barefoot’s World.

I’d like to let you know how it begins…

“THREE MEN sat around the bed of an alcoholic patient in the psychopathic ward of Philadelphia General Hospital one afternoon a few weeks ago. The man in the bed, who was a complete stranger to them, had the drawn and slightly stupid look the inebriates get while being defogged after a bender. The only thing that was noteworthy about the callers, except for the obvious contrast between their well-groomed appearances and that of the patient, was the fact that each had been through the defogging process many times himself. They were members of Alcoholics Anonymous, a band of ex-problem drinkers who make an avocation of helping other alcoholics to beat the liquor habit.

The man in the bed was a mechanic. His visitors had been educated at Princeton, Yale and Pennsylvania and were, by occupation, a salesman, a lawyer and a publicity man. Less than a year before, one had been in shackles in the same ward. One of his companions had been what is known among alcoholics as a sanitarium commuter. He had moved from place to place, bedeviling the staffs of the country’s leading institutions for the treatment of alcoholics. The other had spent twenty years of life, all outside institution walls, making life miserable for himself, and his family and his employers, as well as sundry well-meaning relatives who had had the temerity to intervene.”

From the brochure;

“In 1941 Jack Alexander reported upon the sense of humility and service that distinguished the A.A. program and those who then practiced it. Alcoholics Anonymous has had a tremendous growth since that time. But the same awareness of our need to continue to serve fellow alcoholics in a spirit of helpfulness and humility remains the cornerstone of our Society.”

There is one small part I’d like to repeat again and again for my own benefit – “to serve fellow alcoholics in a spirit of helpfulness and humility remains the cornerstone of our Society.”

A Sober, Clean Day To All,

Mark