Hazelden-Betty Ford Foundation celebrates 75 years of addiction recovery

ST. PAUL, Minn. (FOX 9) - In the years before substance abuse was considered a medical disease, a small group of treatment pioneers hoped to start a program to change lives and ultimately change society. They did it at a secluded farmhouse in rural Center City, Minnesota.

"I want to take you back to May 1st, 1949," said Dr. Joseph Lee, the president and CEO of what is now known as the Hazelden-Betty Ford Foundation. "People thought about addiction as a moral failing, a character defect of people."

But that small group of Minnesotans had a different idea. Theirs revolved around treatment and recovery in a group setting to give those battling addiction a path to sobriety. So, they bought some land from the Mairs and Power investment firm in St. Paul.

"The farm was affectionately called Hazel’s Den after one of the owners, and it became Hazelden," recalled Dr. Lee.

Seventy-five years later, the center is not just a major leader in treatment, it’s also become a big player in the social reform movement to change attitudes about addiction and recovery to get communities to accept that it is a treatable medical condition.

"Defying stigma and seeing addiction only through the lens of morality or character to changing dialogues, perspectives, and policy," said Dr. Lee as he talked about the impact of the organization. "It’s been a wide spectrum of change that we’ve helped to catalyze, through the country and through the world. And we’ve done it with a lot of partners here in Minnesota."

Among the patients who sought not just help, but a new life, was William Moyers.

Battling substance addiction in New York, he checked into Hazelden’s Center City facility in 1989.

"I didn’t stay sober out of my experience at Hazelden, but it was here in 1989 that the seed was planted and I could recover," said Moyers.

He later moved into a halfway house in St. Paul called the Fellowship Club, a late 1880s mansion that gave him a place to stay and thrive with others battling their own addictions.

"I was not quite ready, as I said, to stop drinking and drugging," reflected Moyers as he was interviewed in the very library room of the Fellowship Club he used as a resident decades ago. "Here is where I began to start to believe that I could recover, that I could master the skills, that I could find the pathway to sustainable recovery, which is ultimately what happened."

Moyers didn’t just recover, he thrived. He helped raise $12 million to build what is now the St. Paul treatment campus and he’s now the foundation’s vice president of public affairs.

Hazelden gave respect to treatment and recovery. Betty Ford gave it a face. 

The wife of President Gerald R. Ford quietly struggled with her own alcohol addiction. She was also diagnosed with breast cancer. She eventually went public with both conditions and forever changed how people talked about their health.

"Mrs. Ford really pierced the stagnant conversation in America for two important topics," said Dr. Lee about addiction and breast cancer. "She gave permission to millions of Americans to breathe fully and talk about their experiences and their health conditions. And she transformed how recovery was seen in this country."

The Betty Ford Center opened in California in 1982 and instantly became a center known around the world for alcohol addiction recovery. In 2014, it merged with Hazelden to become the Hazelden-Betty Ford Foundation. It now has locations in Minnesota, California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, New York, Oregon, Washington, and Wisconsin.

"It was almost kind of a destiny that they come together, and it’s been a blessing because the richness of the two legacies are coming together, and we get to celebrate now as an entire country," said Dr. Lee.

At a White House ceremony in March, the U.S. Postal Service and First Lady Jill Biden along with Susan Ford Bales, the daughter of Gerald and Betty Ford, welcomed Dr. Lee and other dignitaries to unveil the new Betty Ford first-class postage stamp now available at post offices across the country.

"And one of the things I’m really going to take away is this picture right here," said Dr. Lee pointing to the Betty Ford postage stamp pin on his suit lapel. "This is the face of recovery."

For William Moyers, the 75th anniversary of the organization is a chance to celebrate the lives it's changed.

"Because for 75 years this organization has been giving people like me a chance. Sometimes more than one chance," said Moyers.

For those struggling with substance abuse addiction, both Moyers and Dr. Lee want to give people hope.

"Chances are better than not that if you just engage and reach out and connect with people, you will find that hope and you will find recovery," said Dr. Lee.