Her knowledge, education, tenacity, and experience led to her international recognition.
Who Is Grace Hopper?
As a child, she was educated in private schools and showed an early interest in engineering.
Inspirational Women in Tech / We Are Tech Women.
She graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Vassar College in 1928 with degrees in mathematics and physics.
She completed her educational career in 1934 with her Ph.D. in mathematics.
Later in life, she became an educator herself and a professional lecturer in the computer science field.
James S. Davis / Wikipedia.
To me, programming is more than an important practical art.
It is also a gigantic undertaking in the foundations of knowledge.
After training at the Naval Reserve Midshipmens School in Massachusetts, she graduated first in her class.
Computer History Museum / Yale News.
Leadership is a two-way street, loyalty up and loyalty down.
Respect for ones superiors; care for ones crew.
In 1987, she was awarded the Defense Distinguished Service Medal, the highest non-combat military decoration.
Smithsonian Institution / Space.com.
What Is Grace Hopper Known For?
Hopper wastasked with programmingthe Mark I and wrote a 500+ page user manual for this early electromechanical computer.
She and the teams computations were said to beessential to the war effort.
The military used them for calculating rocket trajectories, calibrating minesweepers, and creating range tables for new guns.
Mark II and Mark III soon followed.
Hopper continued her work with the Harvard Computation Lab until 1949.
She then joined the Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation, later acquired by Remington Rand.
From then on, when anything went wrong with a computer, we said it had bugs in it.
It was during this time that Hopper suggested a new computer language.
She believed that people would more widely use a programming language using English words rather than just symbols.
In 1952, the first version of the program was born and called A-0.
And the compiler basically translated mathematical notation into machine code.
They told me computers could only do arithmetic.
Between 1954 and 1955 came Flow-Matic, a compiler-based programming language that uses English statements as commands.
The program became available to the public in 1958.
Flow-Matic was the concept that shaped Cobol.
Hopper promoted this language to both military and private sectors throughout the 1960s.
By the 1970s, Cobol was the most widely used computer language worldwide.
In the 1970s, she developed standards for testing computer systems and components.
The most dangerous phrase in the language is, Weve always done it this way.
The Timeline of a Legacy
1906: Born in New York City.
1928: Graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Vassar College.
1930: Obtained her masters in mathematics from Yale University and married New York University professor Vincent Foster Hopper.
1931: Began teaching mathematics at Vassar College.
1934: Completed her Ph.D. in mathematics from Yale University.
1943: Joined the U.S.
Naval Reserve (WAVES).
1945: Divorced from her husband, Vincent Foster Hopper.
1949: Joined the Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation as a senior mathematician.
1952: Developed the first computer language compiler.
1954: Developed with her team the Math-Matic and Flow-Matic programming languages.
1966: Earned the rank of commander and retired from the Naval Reserve.
I seem to do a lot of retiring.
1972-1978: Served as a professional lecturer at George Washington University.
1983: Earned commodore’s rank in the Naval Reserve by special Presidential appointment by President Ronald Reagan.
1985: Earned the rank of rear admiral in the Naval Reserve.
1986-1987: Retired from the Naval Reserve for good and was awarded the Defense Distinguished Service Medal.
1988: Received the National Medal of Technology.
1991: Named a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
She had no children.
Cobol programs are still running on operating systems like Unix and Windows.
A ship in port is safe, but that is not what ships are for.
Sail out to sea and do new things.
Thank you, Rear Admiral Grace Murray Hopper.
Read more about other influential women in technology with our list ofimportant women in video games history.
