Ken M. is a rarity among the oldtimers in this series. He sobered up in Seattle. Many of the others brought their sobriety with them when they came here.

And it has served him well since April 14, 1953, the day he joined the fellowship. Then as now, he lived in the far north end, but there weren´t many programs in those days, so for the first three months he attended meetings at the old hall at 915 East Pine St. on Capitol Hill. Then he discovered the Wedgewood group, and that has been his home meeting ever since. In recent years, though, he has been more active in the Union Club, an AA offshoot that holds luncheon meetings all over the area. He usually attends the ones at Angie´s Little Italy in Edmonds.

Ken says he knew from the moment he came into the fellowship that it was right for him. But 915 East Pine played a big role in getting him started.

"Big Pete ran Table #1 at 915 East Pine. It was quite a production. The story was that he was a beer truck driver and how the hell he stayed sober doing that, I don´t know. Actually, I think he was an ice cream truck driver. Whatever, Table 1 was Step 1, Table 2 was moral restitution, Table 3 was the spiritual part and the 4th table was the 12th Step. I went through all those tables, and went through again and again. There was no such thing as ´90 meetings in 90 days.´ No one had thought it up. But I did that many, and maybe more, those first few months.

"Saturday nights, we had a dance, with a real good band. It was all kinda fun.(Note: those dances lasted well into the ´70s. Why not revive them?)

When Ken moved on to Wedgwood, he found a different group of recovering alcoholics. As a joke, members were told they had to own a house worth at least $20,000, which today would translate into a half million dollars or more. Fortunately for Ken, his wife had inherited a house in Broadmoor. Never taken seriously, the gag eventually died of old age.

Ken was involved in the early governance of Seattle Alcoholics Anonymous. Before the formation of Intergroup, he was a member of a group that called itself the Committee of Seven: himself and Everett C., Pete P., Larry O., Behel H., Bill B. and Eric B.

"I don´t know who appointed us. We weren´t elected. This would have been in the late 50s. I guess you could say we were the fellowship´s board of directors. I´m not sure what happened to it. I got involved in the north end. I guess it just dissolved."

They were followed by the Central Committee, composed of a representative from each of the 33 groups that then existed in the greater Seattle area.(Note: there are now more than 1,000.) This was the predecessor to today´s Intergroup.

Ken´s late wife, Patricia, played a key role too. "She and Doris H., Behel´s wife, organized the first chapter of Al Anon in Washington State, right here in our living room. There was a little tension at first because of another, older group that called themselves the AA Auxiliary. Those ladies thought Pat and Doris should have operated through them. But it all worked out all right."

Unlike many drunks, Ken knew Alcoholics Anonymous was for him the moment he came into the program. He had known about AA as early as 1941, when he read the landmark piece in the Saturday Evening Post. But "it wasn´t for me" for another 12 years.

"I know now I was an alcoholic from very early. When I was in high school, another guy and I would go to the movies, each with a half pint of rum, and drink it during the movie. It progressed from there. My dad was probably an alcoholic, too. I always seemed to be around a lot of heavy drinkers."

Ken grew up in the Boston area. He became a navy flier in World War II. Miraculously, he survived his training to fly B-24 Liberator bombers in combat over Europe.

"In basic training, we flew Yellow Perils (Stearman biplane trainers). I´d be out over the Mississippi River, hung over as hell and fall forward on the stick. Down would go the airplane, the engine would rev up and that would wake me up and I´d fly home."

In European combat, Ken was in the same B-24 squadron as Joe Kennedy, older brother of President John Kennedy. "We did a lot of volunteer work. That´s how Joe Kennedy got killed. He was flying a plane loaded with dynamite, nothing but a big flying bomb that he was supposed to aim at German V-1 (self-guided bomb) sites and then bail out. But the thing blew up prematurely."

After the war, Ken went to work for a company in New England whose president was an alcoholic. "That seemed to me to be the way to go." He followed that with a job with a large electrical manufacturer in Milwaukee and Chicago, then "took the geographical cure" and moved to Seattle in 1951. He was briefly a representative for a chemical company. Then, 90 days after he became sober, he bought a marine business at Fisherman´s Terminal, and later became a sailboat dealer. He retired in 1981.

One of his enduring interests down through the years has been Pioneer Human Services, a wide-ranging counseling, housing and employment program for men coming out of prison. He has been associated with it since its founding in 1963, and is now a board member emeritus.

Looking back on 46 1/2 years in AA, Ken remains grateful for his sobriety and the full life it has helped him to lead. As the torch is passed to younger members, he offered this observation:

"It´s my impression that a whole lot of younger members go to meetings, and that´s all. They don´t contribute money, (Note: a continuing sore point. Typical contributions at meetings remain at $1, the same amount contributed 30 or 40 years ago.) They don´t contribute their time. Their whole focus is on their own sobriety."

Interviewed and written by Dick S.