Events involving this person
Bill Donovan recovers from alcoholism through AA
Description
Neville tells of Bill Donovan, a prejudiced man who went blind-drunk alcoholic while really searching for God, joined AA, has not drunk for a dozen years, and took Neville out to dinner where he explained that he and his wife Becky, who met in AA, never touch a drop.
Persons
Authored by
Anonymous (not verified)
Date (happened)
- c. 0 (probable)
- after 1953 (possible)
between March 1963 and May 1963
After a San Francisco lecture last spring in which Neville spoke on overcoming delusions, Bill Donovan invited him to an early dinner, and he, Betty and Neville went to a French restaurant where Bill
Bill Donovan's racial hatred is broken by a Jewish soldier and a Black worker saving him
Description
A San Francisco businessman, Bill Donovan, told Neville in person how his hatred of Jews and Negroes was destroyed when a Jewish private saved his company in New Guinea and a Negro worker saved his life from a factory fire.
Persons
Location
Authored by
Anonymous (not verified)
Date (happened)
- between September 1963 and November 1963
- before December 1963 (probable)
Told
28 January 1964
Sources
- Source: Purified by the Death of Your Delusions ¶3 (So let me share with you a story told to me this past year in the city of San Francisco, this past fall. He’s one perfectly marvelous chap. He was born in Boston, Massachusetts, the only child of parents who came here from Ireland, raised in a very rugge…)
Bill Donovan tells Neville that he and Becky met in AA and abstain from alcohol
Description
Bill Donovan took Neville out to dinner and, knowing Neville drinks, told him that he and his wife, both from AA, never touch a drop.
Persons
Authored by
Anonymous (not verified)
Date (happened)
- before 1964 (possible)
- before 28 January 1964
Told
- 28 January 1964
- 28 January 1964
Sources
- Source: Purified by the Death of Your Delusions ¶7 (Took me out to dinner, he knows I take a drink, he said, “Neville, you have all you want, but Becky and I (his wife) we never touch a drop. We both were AA and met in AA because of our problem.”)
Bill Donovan nearly drowns off Mexico and is rescued after imagining his boat safe
Description
Neville retells, briefly, Bill Donovan's story of going off to Mexico, imagining the boat safely anchored, nearly drowning, and being rescued by three men in a boat that should not have been in the area — a story he says he told at this same venue the other day.
Persons
Location
Authored by
Anonymous (not verified)
Date (happened)
c. January 1964
Told
28 January 1964
Sources
- Source: Purified by the Death of Your Delusions ¶49 (His story is the one I told here the other day. He went off to Mexico, the boat went off to sea, and he re-enacted the scene as though it were now anchored safely on the beach. And then he plunged in, bravely, into this ocean, and here he is going to dro…)