Recovery Speakers

10/06/2026

October - July 2027

10/06/2026

🌎 AA & RECOVERY EVENTS
🗓️ October - July 2027
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10/05/2026

REMEMBERING LOIS W. | MARCH 4, 1891 – OCTOBER 5, 1988

38 years ago today, the recovery community lost Lois W.

Lois Burnham Wilson died peacefully on October 5, 1988, at the age of 97.
Her life cannot adequately be summarized simply as the wife of A.A. co-founder Bill W.
Lois created a legacy of her own.

She had lived through Bill's alcoholism firsthand — years of fear, frustration, financial hardship, attempts to control his drinking, and eventually the realization that while Bill had found recovery, she needed a path of recovery of her own.

That experience would eventually help change the lives of families around the world.
In the earliest years of A.A., family members were already gathering informally while alcoholics met. Anne Smith, wife of Dr. Bob, had worked with wives and families from the beginning. But there was no formal fellowship, literature, service structure, or clearinghouse specifically for the families and friends affected by another person's alcoholism.

In 1951, Lois W. and her friend Anne B. began changing that.

Working from an upstairs room at Stepping Stones, Lois and Anne contacted 87 known family groups and individuals in the United States, Canada, Ireland, Australia, and South Africa. They began coordinating what became a separate fellowship based on the understanding that family members themselves could benefit from applying the Twelve Steps to their own lives.

That fellowship became Al-Anon Family Groups.

What began with letters written from Lois's desk at Stepping Stones developed into an international fellowship offering families and friends of alcoholics something Lois herself had once desperately needed:

the understanding that their own lives could change, whether or not someone else changed first.

And Lois's work of preservation continued beyond Al-Anon.

In 1979, she founded the Stepping Stones Foundation and served as its first president until her death. Her foresight helped ensure that the Wilsons' home, archives, correspondence, photographs, manuscripts, and historical collections would be preserved and made available to future generations.

There is a particularly moving story from Lois's final days.
Five days before her death, the general manager of A.A.'s General Service Office visited her at Northern Westchester Hospital.

He expressed his gratitude and that of the Fellowship, telling Lois:
“A.A.s owe their lives to you.”

Unable to speak, Lois wrote her response on a pad:
“Not to me, to God.”

It is difficult to imagine a more fitting final reflection from someone whose life had become so deeply intertwined with the history of recovery.

Lois once wrote:

“I believe that people are good if you give them half a chance and that good is more powerful than evil.”

She believed in service.
She believed families could recover.
She believed suffering could become useful to someone else.
And she spent much of her life proving it.

Today we remember Lois Burnham Wilson — co-founder of Al-Anon Family Groups, founder of the Stepping Stones Foundation, early witness to the beginnings of A.A., advocate for families, and a woman whose own experience helped create a path of hope for millions affected by someone else's drinking.

Lois W.
March 4, 1891 – October 5, 1988
With gratitude for a life of extraordinary service.

— Recovery Speakers

Preserving the voices and history of recovery.
Learn more about Lois W. at Stepping Stones

10/05/2026

A handwritten recovery timeline preserved beneath a message from Bill W.

This January 1954 Fifteenth Printing of Alcoholics Anonymous was published during the final year of the First Edition.

Inside, Bill Wilson left a brief personal inscription:
“To Walt —
In gratitude,
Bill”

But directly beneath Bill's message is something equally interesting.

Beginning with the handwritten date “7th September, 1950,” the page contains a chronology extending through the years that followed—apparently recording recovery milestones or anniversaries.

It transforms the page from a simple signed Big Book into a small surviving record of someone's journey in recovery.

We don't have to know every circumstance behind those handwritten dates to appreciate what they represent.

A Big Book wasn't simply something members read.

It could accompany someone through years of sobriety—accumulating names, dates, inscriptions and reminders of the life being lived alongside its pages.
And here, Bill's words “In gratitude” remain directly above that handwritten chronology.

Published in January 1954, this book also comes from the closing chapter of another story. The First Edition of Alcoholics Anonymous would reach its final printing later that year before the Second Edition was introduced in 1955.
The volume retains its original dust jacket.

A message from Bill W.

A recovery chronology beginning in 1950.

And a Big Book from the final year of the First Edition.

All still together more than seven decades later.

This is Book 09 in our continuing exploration of The Co-Founders Collection, ten First Edition Big Books spanning 1941–1954.

Explore The Co-Founders Collection at Recovery Collectibles
https://recoverycollectibles.com/products/co-founders-collection-signed-first-edition-big-books

10/03/2026

“To Helen — In affection!” A personal inscription from Bill W. preserved in a 1950 First Edition Big Book.

Inside this February 1950 Thirteenth Printing of Alcoholics Anonymous is a short handwritten message from Bill Wilson:

“To Helen —
In affection!
Bill”

The inscription was made in Kansas City on May 30, 1951, giving this particular Big Book a personal connection to a specific person, place, and moment in the Fellowship's history.

It's only a few words.

But that's part of what makes these surviving books so interesting.

The Big Book itself was created to carry A.A.'s message far beyond the members who first developed the program. Yet individual copies developed histories of their own—passed between people, carried into different cities, signed, inscribed and preserved.

This one traveled to Kansas City, where Bill left Helen a simple message of affection.

There is another remarkable survivor here as well: its original First Edition dust jacket.

After more than 75 years, it remains one of the brightest and best-preserved original jackets represented in the collection, allowing us to see much more closely how these books actually appeared during the First Edition era.

Sometimes A.A. history survives in the words written inside a book.

Sometimes it survives in the book itself.

Here, we have both.

This is Book 08 in our continuing exploration of The Co-Founders Collection, ten First Edition Big Books spanning 1941–1954.

Explore The Co-Founders Collection at Recovery Collectibles
https://recoverycollectibles.com/products/co-founders-collection-signed-first-edition-big-books


Recovery Collectibles

10/01/2026

Tom I. — What A.A. Was Like & What Happened (Part 3) | Sponsorship, Groups & Responsibility

🎙️ Is simply attending A.A. meetings the same thing as participating in Alcoholics Anonymous?

In Part 3 of this four-part workshop, longtime member Tom I. of Southern Pines, North Carolina continues examining what changed inside the Fellowship as Alcoholics Anonymous grew.
Recorded in Alamo, California, on February 4, 2006, What A.A. Was Like & What Happened reflects nearly five decades of Tom’s firsthand experience.

One theme appears repeatedly throughout Tom’s surviving recordings:

A.A. is not merely something we attend.
It is something we practice.

Tom described the program as a “logical design for living” — a set of actions that become meaningful when carried into relationships, service, sponsorship, home-group life, and the way members respond to newcomers.

That distinction mattered deeply to him.

In later workshops, Tom spoke critically about becoming merely a consumer of A.A. — someone who comes to meetings primarily asking what the Fellowship can provide rather than what they can contribute.

His own understanding evolved toward something very different:
A.A. became a place where he went to do his work — to share experience, help another person, participate in the group, and practice the principles he had been given. Recovery Speakers
Tom also placed enormous importance on the home group.

For him, a healthy group was not simply a room where a meeting happened.
It was a community whose members took responsibility for creating an environment where a newcomer could walk through the door and immediately experience warmth, welcome, identification, and hope.

In another surviving workshop, Tom put the responsibility personally: if he wanted his group to be welcoming, then it was his responsibility to help make it welcoming. Recovery Speakers
That principle reaches directly into sponsorship.

Tom’s recorded stories frequently contrast people who merely remain around the Fellowship with those who begin actively working the program, establishing relationships with experienced members, and becoming useful to someone else.

The larger historical question running through this workshop is therefore not only:

What happened to A.A.?

It is also:
What is each member responsible for preserving?

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

🎙️ Speaker:
Tom I.

📍 Southern Pines, North Carolina

📖 Workshop:
What A.A. Was Like & What Happened — Part 3

📍 Alamo, California

📅 February 4, 2006

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Tom’s perspective carries unusual weight because he experienced the Fellowship across generations.

He entered A.A. in 1957.
He watched groups grow.
He worked in corrections.
He sponsored alcoholics.
He participated in service.

And he continued asking whether the principles that transformed his own life were still being actively passed from one member to another.
Recovery Speakers preserves these workshops so that those questions remain available to another generation.

🌐 RecoverySpeakers.org

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJ6LpNZuLw4

🎙️ Is simply attending A.A. meetings the same thing as participatin...

10/01/2026

A Big Book with a direct connection to Seattle A.A. history.

Inside this October 1948 Twelfth Printing of the First Edition Big Book is a brief but personal inscription from Bill Wilson:

“To Buddie —
In affection —
3/25/51
Bill”

What makes the book especially interesting is that the recipient didn't disappear into history.

Surviving ownership information identifies “Buddie” as Buddie Graves of Seattle, Washington, preserving both a name and a geographic connection alongside Bill's inscription.

That changes how we can look at the book today.

Rather than simply having a Bill W. signature, this copy preserves evidence of a relationship: a particular book, inscribed to a particular person, connected to a particular A.A. community.

By the time Bill wrote the inscription in March 1951, Alcoholics Anonymous had grown dramatically from its beginnings in Akron and New York. Books like this were traveling with members into communities throughout the country, becoming part of local Fellowship history along the way.

And sometimes the surviving ownership marks allow us to trace a little of that journey.
More than 75 years later, Bill's affectionate inscription and the Graves ownership information remain together inside the same First Edition volume.
The book also retains its original dust jacket.

This is Book 07 in our continuing exploration of The Co-Founders Collection, ten First Edition Big Books spanning 1941–1954.

Explore The Co-Founders Collection at Recovery Collectibles
https://recoverycollectibles.com/products/co-founders-collection-signed-first-edition-big-books

09/30/2026

Remembering Searcy W. — March 30, 1910 – September 30, 2003.

In November 2002, at 92 years old and after more than 56 years in recovery, Searcy W. spoke at the Houston Roundup about A.A.’s primary purpose, the Traditions, his experiences with early A.A., and the responsibility each generation has to carry the message forward. The surviving recording runs nearly 52 minutes and is remembered as one of his last talks.

His message remained remarkably simple:
“Trust God, clean house, and help others.”

Searcy died less than a year later, on September 30, 2003, at age 93 after 57 years as an active member of A.A.

Today, on the 23rd anniversary of his passing, we’re grateful that his voice can still be heard.

Watch Searcy W.’s complete 2002 Houston Roundup talk on Recovery Speakers.

09/30/2026

Remembering Searcy W. — September 30, 2003

Twenty-three years ago today, Searcy R. Whaley died in Dallas at the age of 93.
He had spent 57 years as an active member of Alcoholics Anonymous.

Tonight, we're sharing something special from the Recovery Speakers archive.
On November 11, 2002, less than a year before his death, Searcy stood before the Houston Roundup in Houston, Texas and spoke for nearly 52 minutes.

It would become one of his last talks.

At 92 years old, Searcy had watched an extraordinary amount of recovery history unfold firsthand.

In 1948, at Bill Wilson’s urging, he attended the Yale School on Alcohol Studies. He later worked in Texas with the alcoholism-education movement surrounding E. M. Jellinek and the Yale Institute of Alcohol Studies in the Southwest. Beginning in 1949, he helped establish facilities for alcoholics in Lubbock, Dallas, Houston, and Carlsbad, New Mexico.

He also became part of the later story of Ebby Thacher, the man who had carried the message to Bill W. Recovery Speakers’ historical archive records Searcy’s role in helping Ebby receive another opportunity for sobriety in Texas.

But listen to this Houston talk and Searcy doesn't spend 52 minutes telling the room how important he was.

He tells them how important they are.

He talks about A.A.’s primary purpose.

He talks about the Twelve Traditions and why he believed they mattered to A.A.’s survival.

He talks about God, service, sponsorship, Bill W., Ebby, and the responsibility to help the alcoholic who still suffers.

And then he turns his attention to the younger people in the room.

The future, he tells them, will eventually be in their hands.

His challenge is essentially the same message he carried for decades:
Trust God.
Clean house.
Help others.

Searcy's published obituary remembered those words as his motto — followed by the line that sounds unmistakably like Searcy:

“…and it doesn’t have to be done in that order!” Dallas Morning News Obituaries
There is something especially meaningful about hearing this particular recording today.
Searcy could not have known that people would still be listening to this talk 24 years after he gave it.

The people in the room probably didn't know they were listening to one of his final recorded messages.

Someone simply preserved the recording.

And because they did, 23 years after Searcy's death, he can still carry the message.

🎙️ SEARCY W. — HOUSTON ROUNDUP
Houston, Texas
November 11, 2002

▶️ WATCH THE FULL TALK:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0S_WIONg_N4

In memory of Searcy R. Whaley

March 30, 1910 – September 30, 2003

57 years in A.A.
A lifetime of service.
A voice worth preserving.
— Recovery Speakers

Today, on the anniversary of Searcy W.’s passing, Recovery Speakers...

09/30/2026

REMEMBERING SEARCY W. | MARCH 30, 1910 – SEPTEMBER 30, 2003

23 years ago today, A.A. lost one of its remarkable long-timers.

Searcy R. Whaley died in Dallas on September 30, 2003, at the age of 93, after 57 years as an active member of Alcoholics Anonymous.

His life in recovery became intertwined with an important period in the developing understanding and treatment of alcoholism in America.

In 1948, at the urging of A.A. co-founder Bill W., Searcy attended and graduated from the Yale School of Alcohol Studies. That same year, pioneering alcoholism researcher E. M. Jellinek established the Yale Institute of Alcohol Studies in the Southwest at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth. Searcy later joined the Institute as a field representative, speaking in churches and schools about alcoholism, recovery, and the idea that alcoholics could — and should — be helped.

That message was significant for its time:
The alcoholic was sick.
The alcoholic could be helped.
The alcoholic was worth helping.

Beginning in 1949, Searcy's obituary credits him with helping establish facilities for alcoholics in Lubbock, Dallas, Houston, and Carlsbad, New Mexico, where people could be medically stabilized and introduced to Alcoholics Anonymous. He continued alcoholism education and recovery work for the rest of his life, traveling widely to carry a message of hope.

But the people who knew Searcy remembered more than his résumé.
They remembered his simplicity.

His encouragement of newcomers.
His service.

And a motto associated with him for decades:
“Trust God, clean house, help others.”

Followed, characteristically, by:

“…and it doesn't have to be done in that order!” Dallas Morning News Obituaries
The messages left after his death tell their own story. People remembered Searcy making time for newcomers, remembering their names and sobriety dates, carrying the message until late in his life, and demonstrating a kind of service that left an impression long after the meeting ended.

TONIGHT FROM THE RECOVERY SPEAKERS ARCHIVE
In remembrance of Searcy on the anniversary of his passing, Recovery Speakers will release an archival talk by Searcy W. tonight.

Twenty-three years after his death, we'll once again be able to hear the message in his own voice.

That's why these recordings matter.
People leave us.

The rooms change.
Generations pass.

But when the recording survives, the voice can continue carrying the message.
Watch for Searcy W.'s talk tonight on Recovery Speakers.

Searcy R. Whaley

March 30, 1910 – September 30, 2003
57 years in Alcoholics Anonymous.
A lifetime of education and service.
A voice worth preserving.

— Recovery Speakers

Preserving the voices and history of recovery.