Anne Robinson Ripley married Dr. Robert Smith on January 25, 1915. She’d had some second thoughts about tying the knot due to the young physician’s drinking problems; but Bob had stayed dry for some time by then and Anne thought perhaps he’d outgrown it and would leave the alcohol problem behind. She was wrong. For twenty years Ann watched her husband wage a losing battle with alcohol and pills while she came close to losing her own battle with hope. In January of 1933, all of that changed within the course of a week. It was a week unlike any Anne had experienced in all her forty-two years. That was the week that Frank Buchman came to Akron, Ohio accompanied by about thirty members of his Oxford Group.

Akron was, of course, a rubber town supplying nearby Detroit with the tires for all the automobiles produced there. Perhaps the largest tire producer in the town was Firestone Rubber and Tire Company owned by industrial magnate Harvey Firestone. It was “old man Firestone” who was responsible for bringing the Oxford Group to town. He’d issued the invitation and covered the expenses for the group to come to Akron out of paternal gratitude for what they’d done for his son Bud. They’d helped young Bud get sober when many before them had failed. Most of the Protestant churches in Akron opened their pulpits to members of the group, where the congregations listened to powerful stories of “changed lives” brought about through the practice of what they described as their “simple program.” Sitting through a session in the ballroom of the Mayflower Hotel was Anne Smith. More than anything, Ann wanted what they had and she left the hotel determined to get it.

For the next two years Anne and Bob attended regular weekly meetings of the Oxford Group run by Henrietta Sieberling. Although Bob was unable to overcome his addiction, Anne gave herself wholeheartedly to the fellowship. She studied and practiced the program, then known as a First Century Christian Fellowship. She surrendered her life to God, made her amends and faithfully practiced Quiet Time by rising early, reading scripture and listening for God’s voice each morning. When Henrietta phoned Anne and told her she’d just had a telephone call from a self-described “rum hound from New York” who needed an alcoholic to visit, they both saw God’s answer to their prayers. The famous visit between Bill and Dr. Bob took place the following day at Henrietta’s home. A less famous but equally important visit occurred on that Mother’s Day in 1935 when Bill and Anne Smith were introduced.

Much is made in 12 Step circles about the effect Wilson’s meeting had on Dr. Bob, but few know of the tremendous and lasting influence Anne was to have on Bill and on the new program about to be born. As “fate” would have it, Bill Wilson’s visit with the Smith’s lasted almost three months. Broke and out of work, Wilson accepted an offer to move into the Smith’s home at 855 Ardmore Avenue. Bill had been an Oxford Group member for only five months while Ann had been diligently practicing the program for two years. More to the point, however, we should recall that Bill never enjoyed reading and always struggled with his spirituality, while Ann had amassed a sizeable library of spiritual books and had steeped herself in both prayer and practice. Each morning Bill joined Anne and Bob in their Quiet Time and in the evenings spent time with Henrietta and the other Oxford Group members of Akron. These meetings had a transforming effect on Bill Wilson who wrote of the Smith’s: “For the next three months I lived with these two wonderful people. I shall always believe they gave me more than I ever brought them…. Anne and Henrietta infused much needed spirituality into Bob and me….”

Bill Wilson often referred to Anne as “the Mother of A.A.” He said she was, “… quite literally, the mother of our first group, Akron Number One. Her wise and beautiful counsel to all, her insistence that the spiritual come before anything else, her unwavering support of Dr. Bob in all his works; all these were virtues which watered the uncertain seed that was to become A.A. Who but God could assess such a contribution? We can only say that it was priceless and magnificent. In the full sense of the word, she was one of the founders of Alcoholics Anonymous.”

As she’d done for Bill, so she did for countless others. For her remaining fourteen years, Anne was mother to hundreds of newly arrived alcoholics and their families who came to Akron A.A. in search of help. She was always counseling, consoling, nursing and guiding them on their way to recovery. Wilson and others noted that Akron A.A. had far more success with sobering alcoholics than did their counterparts in New York and much of that can be attributed to Anne’s emphasis on love and spirituality.

Arch T. who came to Akron and then brought the program back to Detroit had this recollection of Anne: “I had been taken in off the streets and nursed back to life by Anne Smith. I was not only penniless and jobless, but too ill to get out of the house during the day and hunt for work. So great was Anne’s love and so endless her patience with me, so understanding her handling of me, that ten months later, I left a new man, perhaps imbued with just a few grains of that love. Their love for each other and for their two children was of such a nature that it permeated the house, and if one lived in that house and were willing, that same love was bound to get under one’s skin.”

Recently uncovered by A.A. historian Dick B. is a journal containing some sixty pages of Ann’s notes from the Oxford Group and her own reflections on many of the Group’s principles and practices. In his book Anne Smith’s Journal 1933 – 1939 (ISBN 1-885803-24-9) Dick makes the case that it was directly from Anne Smith that Bill Wilson first learned many of the ideas and spiritual principles that soon found their way into the Big Book. Perhaps like most mothers, Anne never received the recognition she is due.

When the Big Book was being written, Bill asked Ann to write the chapter intended for the family, but Ann in her usual humility declined. Bill’s wife Lois always took some exception to the fact that Bill never offered her the opportunity to write it. Instead, Wilson, in what some might call his usual need for the spotlight, took it on himself to write that chapter too. Perhaps if Bill had stayed with Ann for another month, he’d have gained enough humility to let Lois write it!