The Man Nobody Knew When A.A. “Came of
Age” at St. Louis in 1955
A.A.’s Spiritual Homecoming, November, 2005, St. Louis – It’s Time for Sam
Shoemaker
© 2005 by Dick B.
● Rev. Samuel M. Shoemaker, Jr., the man nobody knew when A.A. “Came of Age” at
St. Louis in 1955
“There came to next to the lecturn a figure that not many A.A.’s had seen
before, the Episcopal clergyman Sam Shoemaker. It was from him that Dr. Bob and
I in the beginning had absorbed most of the principles that were afterward
embodied in the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous, steps that express the
heart of A.A.’s way of life.” Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age. (NY: Alcoholics
Anonymous World Services, Inc., 1957), pp. 38-39.
● Significant comments from A.A. and Al-Anon literature about Bill Wilson, A.A.,
and Rev. Sam Shoemaker
[Bill himself said:] “The early A.A. got its ideas of self-examination,
acknowledgment of character defects, restitution for harm done, and working with
others straight from the Oxford Groups and directly from Sam Shoemaker, their
former leader in America, and from nowhere else.” A.A. Comes of Age, p. 39.
“The Rev. Samuel Shoemaker helped lead early members toward the spiritual
principles embodied in the Twelve Steps.” Pass It On (NY: Alcoholics Anonymous
World Services, Inc., 1984), p. 128.
“While Bill was always generous in recognizing A.A.’s debt to the Oxford Group,
he would always tie the Oxford Group connection to Dr. Shoemaker.” Pass It On,
p. 174.
“Bill’s first three steps were culled from his reading of [William] James, the
teachings of Sam Shoemaker, and those of the Oxford Group.” Pass It On, p. 199.
[Bill himself said:] “Where did the early AAs find the material for the
remaining ten Steps? Where did we learn about moral inventory, amends for harm
done, turning wills and lives over to God? We did we learn about meditation and
prayer and all the rest of it? The spiritual substance of our remaining ten
Steps came straight from Dr. Bob’s and my own earlier association with the
Oxford Groups, as they were then led in America by that Episcopal rector, Dr.
Samuel Shoemaker.” The Language of the Heart (NY: The AA Grapevine, Inc., 1989),
p. 298.
[Lois Wilson said:] “Bill and Sam Shoemaker of the Oxford Group were very good
friends. . . . For reasons of his own Sam became disenchanted with the Oxford
Group and resigned. Later, in 1955 and 1960, he made grand talks before
thousands of AAs at the two International Conventions celebrating the twentieth
and twenty-fifth anniversaries of their Fellowship. Sam was a great man, an
understanding, tolerant, inspiring human being, with a personality that drew
people to him.” Lois Remembers (NY: Al-Anon Family Group Headquarters, Inc.,
1987) , p. 103.
● The definitive and detailed history of the immense role and relationship of
Shoemaker to Bill Wilson and A.A. is Dick B., New Light on Alcoholism: God, Sam
Shoemaker, and A.A. New. Rev. ed., Kihei HI: Paradise Research Publications,
Inc., 1999.
● Appendix One contains a complete list of the Sam Shoemaker Collection
assembled by Dick B. in over 15 years of research.
● Appendix Two tells the story of how the Shoemaker collection is “on tour” and
presently being made available free of charge to viewers at conferences and
conventions throughout America.
● Appendix Three details the immense contributions of Sam Shoemaker to A.A.,
Bill Wilson, & the Steps
● For additional information, contact Dick B., dickb@dickb.com;
www.dickb.com;
808 874 4876
©Dick B.
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