Biography: “A Business Man’s Recovery”
William R., New Jersey.
(OM, p. 242 in 1st edition.)
Bill Ruddell was born in 1900. According to his story in the Big Book, he first got sober in February 1937.
When the Alcoholic Foundation was established in the spring of 1938, he was appointed as a trustee. He almost immediately got drunk and was replaced by Harry B. (“A Different Slant”)
He was underage to join the Army in WW I, but ran away from home and lied about his age to join up. It was in the Army that he started to drink.
He tried many geographic cures. Instead of coming home from Germany after the war he stayed, then took jobs in Russia, England, and back to Germany. He came home in 1924 hoping Prohibition could help him stop drinking. There he discovered the speakeasies. So he shipped off to the Venezuela for a job in the oil fields. They soon poured him on a ship and sent him home.
He had tried doctors, hospitals, psychiatrists, rest cures, changes of scenery, etc., to try to stop drinking. He got married to a woman named Kathleen, hoping marriage would solve his problem. But even Kathleen couldn’t help.
Finally he consulted a doctor who referred him to A.A. Bill W. talked to him and told him his own story, then told him to think about it for a few days. He was back to see Bill again the next day.