A Biography of "Dr. Bob," Co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous

The definitive biography of Robert Holbrook Smith, M.D., co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous (A.A.) has yet to be written. And we are working on that project right now.

In the meantime, here are excellent resources that tell bits and pieces about Dr. Bob of A.A. and his role in the history of A.A.

First, "Dr. Bob of Alcoholics Anonymous: His Excellent Training in the Good Book as a Youngster in Vermont" www.dickb.com/drbobofaa.shtml. This covers every aspect of Dr. Bob's bible training and how it was translated into early A.A. many years later in Akron. It covers Dr. Bob's boyhood house, his family, his Sunday School, his elementary school, the North Congregational Church of St. Johnsbury where the entire Smith family was active, the services and sermons of that church, the Young People's Society of Christian Endeavor in that church and in which Dr. Bob was active--as were his parents Judge Walter P. Smith and Susan Holbrook Smith, his wife. It covers their activity in the YMCA--of which Judge Smith was president in St. Johnsbury. And it covers Dr. Bob's entire schooling in the Congregational Church led academy--St. Johnsbury Academy. There, Dr. Bob cut his teeth on important Christian and biblical ideas that shaped the early A.A. program. These included required daily chapel, required weekly church attendance, required Bible study, and a curriculum that covered Christian materials among many others.

Second, "Dr. Bob and His Library," 3rd ed. www.dickb.com/drbob.shtml. Dr. Bob was an avid reader and student of the Bible. And today's recovery community needs to know the vast amount of literature that Dr. Bob read, recommended, and circulated. It included books on the Bible, Jesus Christ, Christian healing, the Oxford Group, life-changing, Rev. Samuel M. Shoemaker, and many devotionals such as The Upper Room and The Runner's Bible--both widely used in pioneer A.A.

Third, "The Akron Genesis of Alcoholics Anonymous" www.dickb.com/Akron.shtml. This book shows the real origins and founding of A.A. in Akron, Ohio, and gives proper place to the roles of Dr. Bob and his wife Anne Smith in the process. This book is endorsed by family members, and by other noted A.A. historians.

Fourth, in 1980, Alcoholics Anonymous itself published "DR BOB and The Good Oldtimers" This book is still available. And it will start any student of A.A. on the road to knowledge of exactly how Dr. Bob spoke, led, and helped others--5000 of them--in the Akron program, which he called a "Christian Fellowship." Page 131 of this book provides an exact summary of the original program that achieved so much success in the late 1930's.

Fifth, no student of Dr. Bob's life should miss the exact transcript of his last major address to AAs in 1948 in Detroit. Here is where Dr. Bob made it plain that the basic ideas of A.A. came from the Bible, that early AAs considered the Book of James, Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, and 1 Corinthians 13 to be absolutely essential to their program. This pamphlet, numbered P-53 "The Co-Founders...." is A.A. General Conference-approved literature and, despite its vital importance, is often difficult to see or obtain at ordinary A.A. meetings.

There is much more on Dr. Bob and much more to be written. The foregoing should give any inquirer a sound, accurate, foundation of material on the unusual life of this co-founder of A.A.