Why a Dr. Bob Core Library in St. Johnsbury, Vermont

[dickb]

Why a Dr. Bob Core Library at St. Johnsbury, Vermont, and
How You Can Be a Part of Something Great
Dick B.
2008; dickb@dickb.com

• Why St. Johnsbury? Because there’s no place else you can go, see, look, study, learn, and pass info on.

• Because, piece by piece, our great history is becoming accessible, free, and useful. Dr. Bob’s part is due.

• Because precedent shows that a handful of benefactors made it possible to donate free to the Wilson House over 23,900 items of historical materials concerning all of A.A.; because two benefactors made it possible to donate free to Sam Shoemaker’s church in Pittsburgh all of the Shoemaker books and most of his significant correspondence; because several benefactors made it possible to donate free at least one copy of our historical books to every A.A. office in America; because similar gifts have made it possible to donate free historical materials to prisons, chaplains, archives, churches, sober clubs, and people, both afflicted and recovered, in U.S., Canada, England, New Zealand, Australia, Sweden, Norway, Mexico, and other places that wanted them. Precedent shows we can do it with reference to Dr. Bob and A.A.

• Because we believe the objective is to donate, free, without charge, our history to locations where you and anyone else can see it, copy it, study it, and verify it without charge and without undue travel; and that is where so many of our website activities have been pointed. The web is free. It is widely used. It reaches millions (for example, our main website has had over 3.5 million visits thus far from people who wanted what it had to offer). It will continue to grow in resources and outreach. Dr. Bob’s part is overdue.

What This Library Program is About

• We have devoted 18 years to travel, collecting, interviewing, visiting, studying, analyzing, and publicizing our history. But there is still one glaring hole!

• We’ve heard about Bill Wilson’s violin, his boomerang, the death of his first love, and his shortcomings. We’ve been flooded with a dozen biographies about Bill, and many of the recent ones are very good.

• We’ve no place to go to learn about the man Bill Wilson called “The Prince of All Twelfth Steppers.” We’ve no place to go to learn where he got the idea of “love and service.” We’ve no place to go to learn about the “excellent training” he received in the Good Book as a youngster. We’ve no place to go to learn where he was trained, how he was trained, and by whom he was trained. Or the role of his parents.

• Soon, if you help us, we will.

• We’ll have three new books about Dr. Bob. We’ll have thousands of pages of historical items about St. Johnsbury. About his parents (Judge Walter and Susan Smith). About his church (North Congregational Church). About his Sunday school. About the Christian Endeavor Society where he learned and practiced the specifics about prayer and Bible study that were so much a part of early A.A. About prayer meetings. About the Y.M.C.A. and its tremendous lay outreach in Vermont. About the distinguished Americans in the Fairchild family who inspired him. And about the immense influence on Bob of St. Johnsbury Academy, its daily chapel, it required church emphasis and Bible study.

• We’ll place 20 binders containing information you can see. We’ll place several dozen books detailing the genealogies, biographies, histories, libraries, programs, activities, and curricula of St. Johnsbury, North Congregational Church, Christian Endeavor Society, the YMCA, St. Johnsbury Academy, and the immense influence of Dr. Bob’s own family and that of the famous Fairchild people who left buildings, belief in the Creator, conversion to Jesus Christ, inspiration, and religious dedication to Vermont.

http://DrBob.info