I know you woke up today and after accepting that you needed to get out of bed, you turned over and watched TikTok to start your morning. If so, well there is one person who you need to thank for the ability to rot in bed while watching mindless, hilarious videos, and that person is a woman! Everyone give it up for the mother of computer science: Grace Hopper!
Grace was born in New York City in 1906 to Walter Fletcher Murray, the owner of an insurance company, and Mary Campbell Van Horne. Grace’s academic achievements are impressive in their own right; she attended Vassar College and graduated in 1928 as a member of Phi Beta Kappa (the oldest academic honor society in the country). She earned degrees in Mathematics and Physics at a time when women were scarcely enrolled in University. Grace moved on to receive her Master’s in Mathematics from Yale, and then returned to Vassar to teach while pursuing her Doctorate. After completing her Ph.D. from Yale in Mathematics, she took a year long sabbatical to study at NYU with the famous Mathematician Richard Courant.
However, her greatness is not limited to her academic prowess. Grace decided to join the war effort after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Although she was initially rejected because of her older age and diminutive stature, her perseverance paid off and she joined the U.S. Naval Women’s Reserve. During World War II, she was assigned to the Bureau of Ships Computation Project at Harvard, where she worked on the IBM Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator; because that is such a mouth full, it was referred to as MARK I and was the first electromechanical computer in the United States. Grace worked with a team to calculate rocket trajectory, create range tables for new anti-aircraft guns, and calibrate minesweepers. She was also one of the first three programmers of the computer and wrote the 561 page user manual for the system–remember that next time you can’t get through your five page essay! Under Navy contracts from 1946 to 1949, she continued to work on the MARK II and MARK III computers, but left Harvard at the end of her research fellowship, since Harvard had no permanent positions for women. That is where the rest of the story begins.
Instead of pursuing academia at Harvard, she joined the Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation as a senior mathematician. The company had constructed the first electronic computer (ENIAC) under army contracts and developed the first commercial electronic computer called the Universal Automatic Computer (UNIVAC I). Hopper, in all her genius, explored new ways of coding and pioneered the first compiler called A-0. This compiler translated mathematical code into machine-readable code, which created the foundation for modern programming languages. Before Grace joined the scene, programs were written in symbols, making computing difficult and limited computer users to a scant group of mathematicians and scientists. Despite opposition and discouragement, she created FLOW-MATIC, the first programming language to use word commands. It was designed for data processing and expanded the community of computer users. Grace also demonstrated that programs could be written in other languages besides English. She had a vision that computers would be necessary for the public, particularly in business when dealing with applications like payroll. Because of her genius and determination, computer scientists can write code easily using word commands which allows us to use our computers today. I know you all love your phone more than life, so you a big “thank you” to Grace!
Hopper’s work gained international praise as she was named a Distinguished Fellow of the British Computer Society, the first and only woman to hold the title (queen energy!). She remained a Navy Reservist throughout her programming career, but age restrictions forced her to retire as a commander in 1966. In a biography done by Yale University, she remarked that her retirement was “the saddest day of [her] life.” However, “Amazing Grace,” as she was dubbed by her subordinates, was recalled just months later to standardize the Navy’s multiple computer languages and programs (even more queen energy!). She was on active duty for 19 years and retired as rear admiral at 79 years old, making her the oldest serving officer in the U.S. Armed Forces. After her service, she became a Senior Consultant in Public Relations at the Digital Equipment Corporation while continuing to be a teacher.
Grace received a plethora of well deserved accolades such as the Defense Distinguished Service Medal, the National Medal of Technology (the first woman to receive the award), and Yale’s Wilbur Lucius Cross Medal for outstanding alumni. The Navy even commissioned the USS Hopper, a guided military destroyer, in 1996. However, Grace stated that her greatest accomplishment was guiding “all the young people I’ve trained over the years; that’s more important than writing the first compiler” (Yale University).
Grace Hopper is an unsung hero of not only computer science, but the entire world. Every industry and individual in the modern world is hingent on computers, but that is only due to Grace’s efforts to push the folds of technology into public spaces. She was an inspiration during a time when women were excluded from academia and the workforce. Grace’s legacy is a reminder that our goals are only bound by our own limits and we should never let a factor like age or gender deter us. We should not be fenced into one profession; be a teacher, build computers, join the Navy, all within one lifetime. Grace passed away in 1992 and was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2016. So next time, you roll over in bed to watch TikTok, start to write an essay, or make a new Spotify playlist, think of Grace Hopper and her determination and brilliance.