The most amazing outgrowth of the California fellowship occurred because of one White Booklet (aka Little White Book) that was given to an addict at a California AA convention and ended up in the hands of another AA member, but one who was a true friend of NA.

Dick F., an alcoholic living in Philadelphia reached the end of his using days in March of 1959.  He actively helped others, one day he was asked by the AA intergroup to do a twelve step call on a young man (a heroin addict). Dick F. met Roy P. and they began a relationship.  Roy was voted out of AA groups, Dick would have no part of it and continued to take Roy to meetings.

Roy visited family in California, went to an AA Convention while in town and met someone who gave him a Little White Book.  When he returned, he showed Dick and Ray L.  Dick put up the money and produced a thousand copies.

Dick was a counselor at Eagleville Hospital; he gave out the White Booklet to the addicts in the program.  Dick and Roy in December 1969 started the first NA meeting on the East Coast, possibly the first east of the Rockies.

He started a treatment center in Central Pennsylvania in 1970 and they began taking addicts from the day it opened.  Over the door to the center hung a sign ³Alcohol is a Drug, a startling thought in the early 70s. Little White Books were handed out to patients and professionals dealing with addicts.  Copies were made and the stamp on the back of the NA booklet said Compliments of White Deer Run These booklets were used in the founding meetings in Baltimore, Pittsburgh, New Jersey and other places on the East Coast.

Suddenly NA meetings started in Williamsport, Lewisburg, Sunbury, Danville, State College in the next few years and back in Philadelphia, an outgrowth of Eagleville, meetings began in Norristown, Upper Darby, Springfield, Inner City Philadelphia, Southampton and Collegeville.

By 1973, there were a dozen or more meetings in Pennsylvania when there were barely one or two meetings in less than a handful of states outside California.

Although he was an AA member, he was respected for his works and Dick was asked to be the Sunday morning speaker at the 1st East Coast Convention in 1980 at Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania.

Dick F. became the father of NA in Pennsylvania and much of the eastern fellowship, no because he had any desire to be remembered in history, but simply because he believed recovery was possible for addicts who used the Steps and went to meetings.

Dick passed away at home at 4:00am on October 17, 2008.  He would have celebrated 50 years this coming February.  He is survived by his wife Donna.

Send condolences to:

The Flanigan Family 303 West Street Box 153 Battleground, Indiana 47920 The aforementioned story consists of excerpts from My Years with Narcotics Anonymous by Bob Stone pages 62-67 and Southern Exposure ­ Recovery Under The Sun pages 59-63

12 Step Recovery Features and Recovery Video

We have a new 12 Step Recovery Podcast on the feed located to the right. Ian Y. from England has shared with us, so check out his story and subscribe to the recovery Podcast feed. We’ll be posting new recovery speakers every Monday. We need the community to keep this alive, so send us your speaker .mp3 to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Remember, we’re building a recovery resource here and we have a lot of features that aren’t getting much love. Hit up the 12 Step Recovery Calendar at 12 Step Calendar and post your recovery birthday. You can also put any recovery events in your area or meetings in your area. The goal is to fill the calendar up with information for anyone to be able to connect on any given day.

We had so many request to put up a live chat room so that any addict in the world could talk to another addict at any time. We created a place for an alcoholics anonymous meeting in the chat room, a narcotics anonymous meeting in the chat room, and a general 12 step recovery room for all 12 step members who like to chat. Once this was live, we had a request from South America to create a Spanish chat room, so we did. Now members are popping in and out of the chat room and seem to be slowly but surely connecting.

12 Step Recovery Video. We are working every day to bring a great new feature to the 12 step site, recovery videos. We should have our own videos up by the end of the year and soon we’ll be able to allow you guys to upload your own video as well. So keep an eye out for our recovery video channel.

It’s a great day to be clean!