Grandpa Fayette and with his friend Mark Whalon. There is now documentation that Bill Wilson studied the Bible with his grandfather and also with his friend Mark Whalon [The Conversion of Bill W., 6-19, 29-32, 71-75]
Bill’s Four Years at the Burr and Burton Seminary in Manchester, Vermont. Bill attended this Congregational-influenced Academy for four years, up to the time of his anticipated graduation. He went to the required daily chapel, just as Dr. Bob had at his Academy. Also, as required, Bill attended the Manchester Congregational Church each week. (And there is strong evidence that Dr. Bob had regularly attended North Congregational Church, St. Johnsbury, while attending his Academy.) Bill took a four-year required Bible study course at Burr and Burton. And Bill became president of the school YMCA; his girl friend Bertha Bamford became president of the school YWCA; and the two attended school YMCA activities, and daily chapel, together. [My son Ken and I gleaned most of this information from an extended interview of archivist Frederica Templeton of Burr and Burton, from the recent book she had written about the Academy, and from a review of the school’s extant archives and records. [See Frederica Templeton, The Castle in the Pasture: Portrait of Burr and Burton Academy (Manchester, VT: Burr and Burton Academy, 2005)]
The Unexpected Death of Bill’s Girl Friend, Bertha Bamford, and Bill’s Turning His Back on God for many subsequent years. Shortly before Bill’s impending graduation, Bill’s lady love Bertha died unexpectedly. Bill was devastated. He went into one of his many deep depressions. He never graduated from Burr and Burton. And he