A Historical Development of Recovery, Inc.:
A Dialogue between Treasure Rice and Phil Crane

A conversation between Treasure Rice, past president and current member of the Advisory Committee, and Phil Crane, former Director of Leader Training and member of the Advisory Committee. Both Treasure and Phil worked with Dr. Low and were trained by him to fill the roles they played so well for so many years.

This series was originally printed in The Recovery Reporter between March-April 1970 and September-October 1972 as a Fourteen Part Series.

Introduction to a Series

"

How would you like to begin to record your memories of the early years of Recovery, and the time when expansion was just beginning? It strikes me that these memories might be valuable and of interest to present day Recoveryites. Beside, I happen to know that you have been getting requests from Recovery members, as I have, urging us to get on with this task.

The early years when Dr. Low as Medical Director, and was developing Recovery as a completely self-help organization, links us with the present.

Perhaps, there has been some out-and-out procrastination on our part, in that we have not written our recollections sooner. However, more than that, I have the feeling that we approach this undertaking with a great deal of respect. We know it will be difficult to accurately record what took place in those days.

Nevertheless, we were a part of it, so let's get started and see what happens. We have worked as a team for many years, and can provide checks and balances for one another as we get our thoughts down on paper. How about it?

Most sincerely,
Treasure"

"

Since receiving your letter asking me to begin to record my 'memoirs', we have talked about this project over the phone and when we were at the National Institute of Mental Health. So, you know that I will gladly team-up with you to see what we can accomplish.

You are so right, Treasure, when you say that this will not be an easy task. As is usually the case when dealing with anything regarding Recovery, we will have to be sure that we are simply passing along what we learned from Dr. Low in those early days. Frankly, I now find myself looking forward to this project. So, perhaps, our timing is good and our efforts will bear fruit. I certainly hope so.

Sincerely,
Phil Crane"