Bruce M.
The first talk was recorded on Gratitude Sunday in 1963,
the second is from Founder's Day in 1965
I expect to pass through this world but once;
any good thing therefore that I can do,
or any kindness that I can show to any fellow creature,
let me do it now; let me not defer or neglect it,
for I shall not pass this way again.
--Stephan Grellet
Bruce M. was born January 31,1910, in Hamilton, Ohio, the second son of Paul Chandler M., a coal broker, and Katharine Marr, a school teacher. He often said that his mother decided then and there that one of her boys would become a doctor and the other a lawyer. Since Robert was the older by two years, and chose medicine, Bruce had no option and a lawyer he became.
The family, driven from Hamilton by the flood of 1913, relocated in Canton, Ohio, where Katharine, already separated from her husband, moved in with her parents. Much of the boys' upbringing was left to their grandmother, whom they adored, as their mother was occupied with her teaching and administration of Canton Schools.
Bruce started school at the age of five, skipped the second and fifth grades, and was nine when he entered the seventh grade. At that point, his mother withdrew him from school and sent him with his grandmother to Scotland for a year's visit with relatives. After his return, he continued his progress through the public schools earning full scholarships to Kenyon College, Duke Law School and a Sterling fellowship at the Yale Law School. A bright future seemed assured.
Up until he entered Kenyon College at the age of sixteen, Bruce had never tasted alcohol. There, as a freshman, he had his first alcoholic drink, It led to another and another until he passed out. Try as he would, he was never able to drink socially. Although warned by several of his professors about his even then excessive drinking, it still did not deter him from being graduated magna cum laude with a Phi Beta Kappa key from Kenyon College and from Duke Law School with the Order of the Coif, the LLB Degree and a membership in the Ohio Bar Association.
Bruce received his doctorate from the Yale Law School while teaching law at Temple University Law School. After four years at Temple, he became a senior attorney at the Securities and Exchange Commission in Washington, D.C. Whether this first change of jobs was an attempt by him to curb his drinking, was not clear even to him. He did, however, believe that he needed stability in his life and thought marriage might be the answer. In any event, he married in December 1939, Louise Elliott Littlehale, whom he had met at Yale.
A year later, the couple left Washington, and moved to Berkeley where Bruce was associate professor at the University of California's School of Jurisprudence. The birth of their first child, Alexander Bruce, made them ecstatic, but the responsibility of being a father did not lessen Bruce's drinking and his colleagues had begun to take notice of it.
A longing for Ohio where he could feel at home, a desire to practice law, and a dislike of writing law journal articles led Bruce to accept gratefully, in 1941, a partnership in the Canton law firm of his childhood friend, Virgil F. Mills. It became known as Amerman, Mills, Mills, Jones and Mansfield. The close friendship of Virgil and Bruce lasted until Bruce's death.
The added joy of a daughter, born in January 1945, did not slacken Bruce's thirst for liquor. He was now missing days at the office, having to take a drink in the morning and actually drinking more than he was eating. He was about to lose his wife, his children and his job.
Of course, Bruce had tried to control his drinking. He had gone to doctors and even to a psychiatrist. He had heard of Alcoholics Anonymous through the article written by Jack Armstrong in 1939, but he did not know how to reach this fledgling organization. Finally, in October 1945, at a time of utter desperation, Bruce did make contact with two members of the Canton AA group. Slightly skeptical at first, stories in the “Big Book” convinced him and he grasped AA, holding on to it tightly for the rest of his life.
He and Louise had two more children, both daughters. In 1948, he accepted the position of general counsel for Ohio Edison and in 1950, the family moved to Akron. He rose to become Executive Vice President, President of Ohio Edison and President of its subsidiary, Pennsylvania Power Company. He also became President of the Edison Electric Institute and received the John McOraw Award for outstanding service to the electrical industry.
Bruce devoted much time to AA; he went to meetings regularly, led them if possible, whenever and wherever asked, and proudly served as a member of the Central Committee in New York. He knew he owed his life to AA and he was always ready to help others. he strove to have alcoholism recognized as a disease and acknowledged as a serious health problem. He was East Central Regional Trustee from 1963-1967. He filled the term started by Howard B. in April of that year, when Howard died that summer (August?).
Bruce recalls his first encounter with “The Prince of 12 Steppers” in“Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers” on pgs. 276-277