History of the Daetwiler Award

As told by Dr. Richard Daetwiler himself (December 2020):

In the sixties EAPs began to pop up everywhere. In 1971 ALMACA was founded. That was an atrocious name and stood for Association of Labor-Management Administrators and Consultants on Alcoholism. At that time businesses and organization realized that they were losing money from Monday morning absenteeism due to employee drinking all weekend and being hung over on Mondays. Hence, the emphases on Alcoholism. Several EAP employees were hired because they were recovering alcoholics.

In 1975 I attended the National ALMACA gathering in Atlanta, Georgia. It so happened that Ed Kraft and his sidekick, Fred Mosher, also attended. Ed was working for the Alcohol and Drug Abuse Division of the State Health Department. The emphasis of the Health Department was to establish as many EAPs as they could. They also sponsored an annual luncheon that became known as the Governors Luncheon where they invited all the living governors of Colorado to encourage businesses and agencies to establish EAPs. I was working at the Denver Regional Council of Governments (DRCOG) as the Coordinator of Alcohol, Drug and Mental Health Services for the Federal Region 3. Believe it or not, at that time I knew most everyone in those fields. After attending the national gathering of ALMACA I was determined that we should have a Colorado Chapter and put that as a goal for the year. When the second in command of the COG asked me what was in it for us (DRCOG). I said, "Nothing but has to be done". I wrote the national office for instructions on how to establish a chapter and they sent them along with a template for a chapter constitution. I gathered all the EAP representatives in the Denver-Boulder area and worked with them until a chapter had been formed and then cut them loose to carry out the chapter work. They took off and very early on hosted the national gathering in Denver. I attended the monthly meetings for several years whenever possible. I left the DRCOG in 1977 to teach at Metropolitan State College (now University). Somewhere along the line ALMACA changed its name to EAPA, much to the relief of us all. I was among those that pushed for the expansion of services to include the many issues other than just Alcoholism.

In 1980 Betty Warren, with the EAP at Blue Cross/Blue Shield, was president of the chapter and she along with Fred Mosher, who was also an officer, approached me to attend a dinner of the EAP and both declared me President emeritus of the chapter (though I was never president) and established the Daetwiler Service Award. Betty was the first recipient of the award. So there you have it! Over the years I have never been more proud of anything that I have done, than the establishment of the Colorado Chapter. I can't imagine how many lives have been touched by the many members over these last 40 years. The work that you do is phenomenal. I so appreciate the opportunity each year to give out the award. When I say thank you for letting me do so, it is said with the utmost sincerity.