From the Magazine | TIME Bonus Section October
2004: Generations
Living Recovery
A man who knew the founder of A.A. has had a 70
year quest to help other problem drinkers
By MELISSA
AUGUST/TOWSON
Posted Sunday, Sep. 19,
2004
It was on a cold day in 1934 that James H. hit bottom. Newly
wedded and living in Frederick, Md., he was getting drunk every
weekend -- and sometimes even during the week -- on home brew.
He had recently been in a drunken-driving accident in his
employer's car, and his drinking had estranged him from his wife
Betty. "We were not married a month," H. says,
"before I told her I was sorry I ever saw her." H.
had begun drinking early, at age 5, when he would sneak sips from
his mother's bottle of dandelion wine, then make up the difference
with water. Although he grew up in the middle of Prohibition, his
drinking problem only got worse as the years passed.
On Dec. 11, a friend who thought H. needed to
make some changes took him to a meeting at the local YMCA of the
Oxford Group, an evangelical society founded in Britain by Frank
Buchman that was prominent in the 1920s. H. was immediately
drawn to the group's teachings, which were based on four
principles: honesty, purity, unselfishness and love. He was
especially moved by the concept of "two-way" prayer: the
group taught that if you spent quiet time every day listening to
God, he would provide guidance. You were also encouraged to make
restitution, to "put right what's wrong in your life,"
says H..
It was at those Oxford Group meetings that H.
befriended Bill Wilson, a.k.a. Bill W., a chronic drinker who
would go on to co-found Alcoholics Anonymous (A.A.) in 1939. H.
joined the Oxford Group and became sober on Dec. 12, one day after
Wilson did. Today, at 98, H. is the only living person to have
attended Oxford Group meetings with Wilson, who died in 1971.
H. remembers Wilson well, and after a 40-year
career as an electrical engineer and salesman, he has made it his
mission to bring the Oxford Group's teachings to a new generation
of recovering alcoholics. In the early 1970s, he started working
with longshoremen on the Baltimore docks, and until recently, he
traveled every six weeks or so, giving talks to members of 12-step
programs, including A.A., around the country. H. continues to
provide counsel to recovering addicts who telephone from around
the world. He still appears at meetings held within driving
distance of his home in Towson, Md., and shares the inspirational
story of his recovery and the early days of the Oxford Group with
out-of-town gatherings via teleconferencing.
H. wants to restore the old methods the Oxford
Group used, in particular its spiritual aspects, which he believes
are stronger and more effective than the ones currently practiced
in A.A. The principles of the group live on in the Back to Basics
organization, which follows a 12-step program similar to that
originally used by A.A. H. has been trying to apply Back to
Basics techniques in federal and state prisons and is working
directly with 300 prisoners in the Henrico County Jail East, in
Richmond, Va.
H. knows how much a group like this can mean to
someone. After he decided on Dec. 12, 1934, that he would never
drink alcohol again, he made restitution with his wife and others
he had harmed. "I started telling my wife what kind of a
fellow I was," he says. "I did this for three nights to
get all of the garbage out. I wanted to be honest about everything
in my life." He says his wife was grateful for the talk and
then understood his behavior. "Now we could start our family
and raise the children with the same guidelines. We had family
quiet time every day. That's the way we raised the whole
family." H. lost his wife to cancer in 1988, but believes
the lessons learned from the Oxford Group gave him a life he had
not been sure was possible. "A marriage that wasn't supposed
to last one year lasted 57 years." From
the Sep. 27, 2004 issue of TIME magazine
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