Go to any major city in the United States, and there's a good chance you'll see at least one bumper sticker that reads, "Honk if you know Bill W." This message is shorthand for those familiar with Alcoholics Anonymous. It is a way to pay tribute to Bill Wilson, one of the founders of AA, and also a way for recovering people to connect with others in recovery.

The odds are just as high that you won't see any "Honk if you know Marty M." bumper stickers, even though Marty Mann was the first woman in AA and has probably done more than any other person to advance the understanding that alcoholism is a disease that strikes women as well as men. An alcoholic herself, Margaret "Marty" Mann founded the National Committee for Education on Alcoholism (today called the NCADD--the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence) in 1944. According to Sally and David Brown, the authors of Mrs. Marty Mann: The First Lady of Alcoholics Anonymous, this was just five years after her psychiatrist convinced her to read a manuscript he had been asked to review entitled Alcoholics Anonymous.

Unable to find a way to keep her sober himself, this same psychiatrist also persuaded Mann to attend one of the only two AA meetings in the country at that time. It was at the home of Bill Wilson, the man who would become Mann's sponsor and lifetime friend. "I could finish their sentences!" the Browns quote Mann as saying after the meeting that altered her life and subsequently changed the lives of so many others. "They could finish my sentences! These were my people. I had come home."

To read Marty Mann's story is to take a journey through history. She lived during both World Wars, the Great Depression, Prohibition, and the turbulent sixties. She was on a first-name basis with Susan B. Anthony, Dorothy Parker, Truman Capote, and many other celebrities, but also touched the lives of "regular" people throughout the world. When she died in 1980, a long tribute to her was read in the Congressional Record of the U.S. Senate.

The Browns report that Mann was once told not to measure accomplishments by how near you are to your goal, but by how far you have come. This is an important lesson for everyone, especially those who travel the long road of recovery.

Mann's road was paved with extraordinary accomplishments. Thanks in large part to her efforts, America's attitude toward alcoholism changed from a moral issue to a public health issue. Her vision, which culminated with her founding of the NCEA, included educating medical professionals, social workers, and clergy about alcoholism; establishing at least one alcohol center in every state; and providing treatment and beds for alcoholic patients in hospitals and clinics throughout the country.

While AA concentrated on alcoholics working one-on-one with other alcoholics, the Browns write that Mann set out to change entire systems as a way to help alcoholics. Among other things, she arranged for New York's buses to display public service ads stating that alcoholism is a disease. In 1949, she also launched a campaign that placed coin boxes in city bars, asking patrons to donate the price of a drink to help those who suffered from the disease of alcoholism. When the American Medical Association finally agreed in 1967 that alcoholism was a disease, the Browns quote Mann as saying "Alcoholism was the first disease they ever had to vote was a disease!"

Like Bill W., Dr. Bob, and all the other pioneers of addressing alcoholism, Marty Mann has made an enormous difference in our understanding of addiction. With them, she has lessened stigma, increased awareness, emphasized prevention and intervention, and underscored the necessity of and right to treatment.

So honk if you know Marty M. We owe her a debt of gratitude for her life of service and a job well done.

-- Published July 2, 2001