Why He’s Notable: What was meant to be a 15-minute meeting between alcoholics Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob Smith — invited to Stan Hywet’s Gate Lodge by Henrietta Seiberling on Mother’s Day, May 12, 1935 — turned into a six-hour conversation that sparked a global movement. On June 10, 1935, Smith took his last drink — and launched Alcoholics Anonymous, having formulated the 12 steps while Wilson was staying at Smith’s 855 Ardmore Ave., Akron, home. “The key was once you start helping another alcoholic, that keeps you sober,” says Ryan, board chairman of Dr. Bob’s Home, which is now a nonprofit museum. At St. Thomas Hospital in Akron, Smith, Wilson and Sister Mary Ignatia established the world’s first hospital-based unit dedicated to treating alcoholism as a medical condition. Largely through that unit, Smith helped nearly 5,000 people, Ryan says.
His Local Impact: At Smith’s Akron home, as many as 75 people sought healing at once. Eventually, the gatherings moved to the nearby King School, where the first official group of AA was held — and where AA meetings are still being held today. Thousands from all over the world visit Dr. Bob’s Home, where they can see Smith’s early manuscript of AA’s “Big Book”— as well as the typewriter used to document a portion — at the National Register of Historic Places landmark. Annually in early June, nearly 10,000 people descend upon the house, its campus and nearby landmarks to celebrate Founder’s Day weekend. “It’s a spiritual experience,” Ryan says. “People come there with a sense of gratitude for what Alcoholics Anonymous has done for their lives. … We get doctors, lawyers, judges, movie stars. They all come to see where it all started.”
His Legacy: From AA has come other influential movements. “Overeaters Anonymous, Cocaine Anonymous, and Narcotics Anonymous, all these other meetings — they really stem from the original 12 step-program of Alcoholics Anonymous,” says Ryan. Additionally, Smith and his wife Anne’s willingness to house alcoholics —and take care of their families — helped to start Al-Anon, a support network for the loved ones of alcoholics. “They were very gentle people. They were loving people, and they would help anybody they could,” Ryan says. In the 90 years since its founding, AA has grown to reach over 2 million members in about 200 countries, saving numerous lives…