After Wilson's death, and amidst controversy within the fellowship, his full name was included in obituaries by journalists who were unaware of the significance of maintaining anonymity within the organization.

Influenced by the preaching of an itinerant evangelist, some weeks before, William C. Wilson climbed to the top of Mount Aeolus, had a spiritual experience and quit drinking.

[12] He dealt with a serious bout of depression at the age of 17, following the death of his first love, Bertha Bamford, who died of complications from surgery.

[13] Wilson met his wife Lois Burnham during the summer of 1913 while sailing on Vermont's Emerald Lake; two years later, the couple became engaged.

[15] Pancho Villa's incursion into the U.S. in June 1916 resulted in Wilson's class being mobilized as part of the Vermont National Guard, and he was reinstated to serve.

During military training in Massachusetts, the young officers were often invited to dinner by the locals, and Wilson had his first drink, a glass of beer with little effect.

[16] A few weeks later at another dinner party, he drank some Bronx cocktails and felt at ease with the guests and liberated from his awkward shyness.

"[18] Wilson married Lois on January 24, 1918, just before he left to serve in World War I as a 2nd lieutenant in the Coast Artillery.

[20] Wilson became a stock speculator and had success traveling the country with his wife, evaluating companies for potential investors.

Towns Hospital for Drug and Alcohol Addictions in New York City four times under the care of William Duncan Silkworth.

[22] Wilson gained hope from Silkworth's assertion that alcoholism was a medical condition, but even that knowledge could not help him.

He was eventually told that he would either die from his alcoholism or have to be locked up permanently due to Wernicke encephalopathy (commonly referred to as "wet brain").

Wilson was astounded to find Thacher had been sober for weeks under the guidance of the evangelical Christian Oxford Group.

[23] Wilson took some interest in the group, but shortly after Thacher's visit, he was again admitted to Towns Hospital to recover from a bout of drinking.

During a failed business trip to Akron, Ohio, Wilson was tempted to drink again and decided that to remain sober he needed to help another alcoholic.

He called phone numbers in a church directory and eventually secured an introduction to Bob Smith, an alcoholic Oxford Group member.

Smith was familiar with the tenets of the Oxford Group, and upon hearing of Wilson's experience, "began to pursue the spiritual remedy for his malady with a willingness that he had never before been able to muster.

After that summer in Akron, Wilson returned to New York where he began having success helping alcoholics in what they called "a nameless squad of drunks" in an Oxford Group there.

In 1938, after about 100 alcoholics in Akron and New York had become sober, the 'fellowship' decided to promote its program of recovery through the publication of a book, for which Wilson was chosen as primary author.

The book was given the title Alcoholics Anonymous and included the list of suggested activities for spiritual growth known as the Twelve Steps.

The AA general service conference of 1955 was a landmark event for Wilson in which he turned over the leadership of the maturing organization to an elected board.

[33][34] During the last years of his life, Wilson rarely attended AA meetings to avoid being asked to speak as the co-founder rather than as an alcoholic.

)[43] According to Wilson, the session allowed him to re-experience a spontaneous spiritual experience he had had years before, which had enabled him to overcome his own alcoholism.

Bill is quoted as saying: "It is a generally acknowledged fact in spiritual development that ego reduction makes the influx of God's grace possible.

"[44] Wilson felt that regular usage of LSD in a carefully controlled, structured setting would be beneficial for many recovering alcoholics.

Wilson also believed that niacin had given him relief from depression, and he promoted the vitamin within the AA community and with the National Institute of Mental Health as a treatment for schizophrenia.

Wilson's persistence, his ability to take and use good ideas, and his entrepreneurial flair[55] are revealed in his pioneering escape from an alcoholic "death sentence", his central role in the development of a program of spiritual growth, and his leadership in creating and building AA, "an independent, entrepreneurial, maddeningly democratic, non-profit organization".

[56] Wilson is perhaps best known as a synthesizer of ideas,[57] the man who pulled together various threads of psychology, theology, and democracy into a workable and life-saving system.