Bill W.

William Griffith Wilson (November 26, 1895 - January 24, 1971), also known as Bill Wilson or Bill W., was the co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), a fellowship of 100,800 support groups world-wide dedicated to helping alcoholics achieve sobriety. According to the AA Twelfth Tradition of anonymity, Wilson was and still is commonly known as "Bill W." or just "Bill." He largely preferred this form of his name over the more formal non-AA version, thus this article will use that form.Wilson achieved sobriety on December 11, 1934 and maintained it throughout his remaining 36 years. Despite the success and notoriety afforded him by the accomplishments and growth of AA under his leadership, he continued to suffer from episodes of depression. In 1955 Wilson turned over control of AA to a board of trustees. In the years before his death he changed the makeup of the board, which was initially composed of a non-alcoholic majority, to trustees who were both recovered alcoholics and non-alcoholics, with the majority being recovered alcoholics. In keeping with his interest in spirituality, he experimented with other possible cures for alcoholism.