Namesake:
Rear Admiral Grace Murray Hopper
December 9, 1906 - January 1, 1992
In the world of technology,
most women do not get the recognition that Rear Admiral Dr.
Grace Murray Hopper has received. Hopper is the mother of
computing. Her development of the first computer compiler and
the first computer programming language helped revolutionize the
world of computers. Although Hopper had a career decorated with
many rewards, she had to prove herself repeatedly. She once
said, & quote "If you do something once, people will
call it an accident. If you do it twice, they call it a
coincidence. But do it a third time and you've just proven a
natural law!" She holds honoree doctorates from over thirty
universities and many of her writings have influenced programs
made today. Perseverance and knowledge are two traits that made
her a great leader. She was determined not to let anyone get in
the way of her vision of creating a much wider audience for
computing.
Grace Murray Hopper Timeline
1906 Born in New York
1928 Graduated from Vassar College with Phi Beta Kappa
1930 Earned her Masters in Math and Physics at Yale
1934 Earned her Ph.D. in Math and Physics at Yale
1941 Joined Vassar's faculty as a professor in Math and
Physics
1943 Joined the Naval Reserves
1946 Returned to inactive duty; Joined Harvard's
Computation Laboratory
1949 Joined Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corp as a senior
mathematician
1967 Recalled to active duty
1971 Retired from the Navy
1972 Asked to come out of retirement by the Navy
1983 Appointed to Commodore
1985 Appointed to Rear Admiral
1986 Second retirement from the Navy; Became a consultant
for Digital Equipment Corp (DEC)
1992 Died January 1
It was unusual for a woman in the 1950's and 1960's to have
the kind of job Hopper did. She was outstanding in marketing and
had amazing technical skills. Her nickname in the navy was "Amazing
Grace." People listened to her because she had the
technical skills and the vision. She never gave up on her ideas.
These qualities are what put her in the forefront of computing.
Hopper had an edge over everyone in the computer business
because she believed that there was always a way to improve on
the technology. Through her dedication, her knowledge, and her
determination she took the world of computers to a new level.
New York Days
Grace Hopper was born in 1906. From an early age, Hopper
was good with gadgets. She would take apart alarm clocks just
for fun.
Vassar College
In 1928, this New York native received her BA. in math and
physics from Vassar College.
Naval Reserves
In 1943, during World War II, she joined the United States
Naval Reserves. She was assigned to the Bureau of Ordinance
Computation Project. There she became the third programmer of
the world's first large-scale computer called the Mark I. When
she saw it, all she could think about was taking it apart and
figuring it out. "That was an impressive beast. She was
fifty-one feet long, eight feet high, and five feet deep,"
said Hopper. She mastered the Mark I, Mark II, and Mark III.
While trying to repair the Mark I she discovered a moth caught
in a relay. She taped the moth in the log book and from that
coined the phrase "a bug in the computer".
Eckert-Mauchly Corp
After her tour of duty, Hopper went on to work for
Eckert-Mauchly Corporation. She wanted to provide businesses
with computers that were both application-friendly and
programmer-friendly. There, she mastered the UNIVAC I, the first
large-scale electronic computer. She saw that the programmers
would constantly have to retype certain commands for every
program they did. Hopper encouraged them to write the commands
once and place them in shared libraries of code. This reduced
the amount of errors and stress for the programmers. Soon, the
programs contained mnemonics that were transformed into binary
codes that were executable by the computer. Hopper created a
program that translated symbolic math codes into machine
language. This allowed the programmers to store codes on
magnetic tape and re-call them when they were needed. This was
the first compiler. Hopper believed that programming did not
have to be a difficult task. Since computers only read binary
codes, a series of 0s and 1s placed in a certain order that the
computer understands, she believed that programs could be
written in English and then translated into binary code. This
program was known as FLOW-MATIC. This language helped the UNIVAC
I and II understand twenty English statements. This programming
language was used for typical business work, such as payroll and
billing.
Recalled to Active Duty
In 1966, Hopper retired from the Naval Reserves, but was
called back to active duty one year later. The navy wanted her
to oversee a program to standardize its computer programs and
their languages. One of the programs she help develop was COBOL.
Rear Admiral
During her rise up the Naval ladder, Hopper had to convince
a lot of people to change their habits. On a daily basis, she
heard someone say, "but that's how we've always done it."
Hopper believed that change was good, and needed. "I'm
going to shoot somebody for saying that someday," she would
quip. "In the computer industry, with changes coming as
fast as they do, you just can't afford to have people saying
that." To prove that things did not always have to be done
a certain way, Hopper had a clock on her wall that ran counter
clockwise.
Amazing Grace
Hopper considered her greatest accomplishment to be all the
young people she trained. She spent a lot of time lecturing and
writing. Many of her analogies and examples have become
legendary. Hopper is responsible for "debugging" the
computer. She coined the phrase after finding a moth inside a
computer. Once she used a piece of wire to represent a
nanosecond. A nanosecond is the maximum distance electricity can
travel through a wire in one-billionth of a second. She used
this as a way to explain why programmers should not waste time,
not even a microsecond. |
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