# Who was the old school friend in "Bill's Story" (Ebby)?

**In short:**
- The friend who phoned Bill W. in November 1934 and came to his kitchen sober was Ebby T., a boyhood friend and old drinking companion from Vermont. The 1939 Big Book doesn't name him; later accounts do.
- Ebby had sobered up a few months earlier through the Oxford Group, after friends from that group, among them Rowland H., came to him when he was in trouble with the law. He passed on to Bill what he had been given: admit you are licked, take stock of yourself, confess your defects to another person, make restitution, give of yourself, and pray to whatever God you think there is.
- He is the friend who told Bill to choose his own conception of God (p. 12). In his 1957 book Bill calls him "my sponsor."
- Ebby later drank again, for years. Our 1984 biography of Bill says he died sober in 1966.

## What "Bill's Story" says (1939)

Near the end of a bleak November in 1934, as Bill drank at his kitchen table, "an old school friend" phoned and asked to come over (p. 8). "He was sober." (p. 9). Rumor had it he had been committed for alcoholic insanity; instead "two men had appeared in court, persuading the judge to suspend his commitment" (p. 9). They had told him of a simple religious idea and a practical program of action. "That was two months ago and the result was self-evident." (p. 9).

When Bill offered him a drink, he refused, and said simply: "I've got religion." (p. 9). He told Bill that God had done for him what he could not do for himself (p. 11). When Bill balked at a God personal to him, his friend suggested: "Why don't you choose your own conception of God?" (p. 12). That, Bill writes, "hit me hard" (p. 12).

The friend kept coming. In the hospital he heard Bill's problems and deficiencies, and they made a list of people Bill had hurt (p. 13). He promised a new relationship with the Creator once these things were done (p. 13), and he stressed working with others: "Faith without works was dead, he said." (p. 14). The story ends with "my friend's simple talk in our kitchen" multiplying itself in a widening circle (p. 16).

The 1955 Foreword to the Second Edition calls him "an alcoholic friend who had been in contact with the Oxford Groups of that day" (pp. xv–xvi). Bill's biographical sketch in P-53 (pamphlet © 2017) names him: in November 1934 Bill "learned from an old friend, Ebby, how the Oxford Group was able sometimes to help alcoholics; Ebby himself was a recent example." (P-53).

## Bill's longer account (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957)

Bill calls Ebby "my old boarding-school friend and drinking companion" and says he had long marked him as a hopeless case (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). Asked what brand of religion he had, Ebby said: "I just fell in with a group of people, the Oxford Groups." (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). He had learned to admit he was licked, take stock of himself and confess his defects to another person, make restitution, give of himself, and pray to whatever God he thought there was, even as an experiment (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). "Ebby didn't try to pressure or evangelize me" (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). A few days later Bill went looking for the Calvary Mission, where Ebby's Oxford Group friends had lodged him, and Ebby turned up there; he visited Bill again in Towns Hospital to give the same formula (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). He then came to live with Bill and Lois in Brooklyn (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957).

At the 1955 convention Bill wrote: "And there sat my sponsor Ebby, who had first brought the word that lifted me out of the alcoholic pit" (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). In his talk on service he said Ebby's phone call and subway ride, ten cents in all, were the first time "spirituality and money began to mix" (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957).

He is also candid about what came after. By late 1937 "Ebby had slipped" (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957), and in 1940 "My own sponsor, Ebby, also continued his drinking" (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957).

## Ebby's own account (Pass It On, 1984)

*Pass It On* says Ebby came from a family prominent in Albany for three generations; he and Bill met in 1911 and were classmates for a season at Burr and Burton (Pass It On, 1984). In 1934, drinking alone in Manchester, Vermont, and in trouble with the police, he was visited by two old drinking friends who had found the Oxford Group, and by Rowland H. (Pass It On, 1984). Rowland had been treated by Carl Jung (Pass It On, 1984); see *What part did Carl Jung play in A.A.'s beginning?* When Ebby was arrested for shooting at pigeons on his newly painted house, Rowland told the judge in Bennington he would be responsible for him (Pass It On, 1984). Ebby then went to New York and lived at the Calvary Mission, where he heard of Bill's condition (Pass It On, 1984).

Ebby's sobriety lasted until April 1937: "That was after two years and approximately seven months of sobriety" (Pass It On, 1984). Bill supported him for the rest of his life, "until Ebby died — sober — in 1966" (Pass It On, 1984). Lois is quoted in *Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers* (1980) as saying that with Ebby "it was more gratitude — and nostalgia" than close friendship (Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers, 1980).

## Where the sources differ
- **The court.** The 1939 story says two men persuaded the judge to suspend Ebby's commitment (p. 9). *Pass It On* (1984) has one man, Rowland H., telling the judge he would be responsible for Ebby after an arrest (Pass It On, 1984).
- **How long Ebby had been sober.** The 1939 story says two months (p. 9). In Bill's 1957 account Ebby says he hasn't had a drink "for months" (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957); a mission worker quoted in *Pass It On* heard him testify to "a number of months" (Pass It On, 1984).
- **"School friend."** The 1939 text says "an old school friend" (p. 8); Bill in 1957 says boarding-school friend (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957); *Pass It On* says they were classmates for one season (Pass It On, 1984).
- **When the slip began.** Bill's 1957 account mentions it as of November 1937 (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957); Ebby, in *Pass It On*, dates it to April 1937 (Pass It On, 1984). These agree.
- Our sources give his surname only as "T." and doesn't say more about his last years than *Pass It On*'s one line.

## Read it yourself
- "Bill's Story," Chapter 1 (pp. 1–16), free from A.A.: https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_chapt1.pdf
- Foreword to the Second Edition (pp. xv–xxi): https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_forewordsecondedition.pdf
- P-53, *The Co-Founders of Alcoholics Anonymous*: https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/literature/P-53_0725.pdf
- *A.A. Comes of Age*, *Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers* and *Pass It On* are sold by A.A. World Services: https://onlineliterature.aa.org
- Related: *What happened to Bill W. at Towns Hospital?* · *What part did Carl Jung play in A.A.'s beginning?* · *Is the word "sponsor" in the Big Book?* · *Is "faith without works is dead" in the Big Book?*

## Sources
| Source | Pages | Date |
|---|---|---|
| *Alcoholics Anonymous*, "Bill's Story" | 8–16 | 1939 |
| Foreword to the Second Edition | xv–xvi | 1955 |
| P-53, Bill W.'s biographical sketch | — | pamphlet © 2017 |
| *A.A. Comes of Age* | — | 1957 |
| *Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers* | — | 1980 |
| *Pass It On* | — | 1984 |

Big Book page numbers are from the fourth edition (2001).
*Recovery Starts is independent and not affiliated with Alcoholics Anonymous. Quotations are brief and cited; the Big Book, P-53,* A.A. Comes of Age, *Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers *and* Pass It On *are © A.A. World Services, Inc.*