Women's History Month: "Amazing Grace" Hopper

The world of computer technology is often seen as a male-dominated field. Most people, when they think of "computers" and the history of computing, they think of the men who did it. But there is a pioneer who is not a man. One of the great women in this nation's history. If you've ever used the term "computer bug," "debugged" a computer, or said "It's easier to ask forgiveness than it is to get permission," you've quoted her. She was one of the earliest computer scientists, and developed the programming language on which even today much of the world's business runs. Her name? Grace Murray Hopper.

Rear Admiral Grace Murray Hopper (December 9, 1906 – January 1, 1992) was an American computer scientist and United States Navy officer. A pioneer in the field, she was one of the first programmers of the Harvard Mark I computer, and developed the first compiler for a computer programming language. She conceptualized the idea of machine-independent programming languages, which led to the development of COBOL, one of the first modern programming languages. She is credited with popularizing the term "debugging" for fixing computer glitches (motivated by an actual moth removed from the computer). Because of the breadth of her accomplishments and her naval rank, she is sometimes referred to as "Amazing Grace"

It was during World War II that she left her position as a Professor of Mathematics at Vassar to join the Navy. She stayed in the Naval Reserve until she retired in 1966. A few months later, they asked her to spend 6 months on active duty - which stretched into 5 years, before she retired again. This didn't last long either, they brought her back, and for the next 14 years she served on active duty, being promoted to Rear Admiral.

She retired (involuntarily) from the Navy on August 14, 1986. At a celebration held in Boston on the USS Constitution to celebrate her retirement, Hopper was awarded the Defense Distinguished Service Medal, the highest non-combat award possible by the Department of Defense. At the moment of her retirement, she was the oldest commissioned officer in the United States Navy (79 years, eight months and five days), and aboard the oldest commissioned ship in the United States Navy (188 years, nine months and 23 days)

Retirement didn't slow her down. She was immediately hired by DEC as a consultant, and gave lectures around the world. One young journalist interviewed her:

I made the required phone calls and was granted an audience at 9:00 p.m. on a Wednesday night. Swell. That's past my bedtime, and I was absolutely certain it was past lights out for a 70-year-old-plus, admiral or not.

As I look back on that night, I don't know what I really expected. Whatever it was, it was light years away from what I got.

True to my profession, I did my homework. Armed with a tape recorder, spare tapes, pad of paper, two pens and well-prepared, pre-sanctioned questions, I arrived at the designated audience chamber, the lobby of the Hotel Radisson, well ahead of the appointed hour. Promptly at 9 o'clock, the elevator door opened, and the lady emerged. Shaking my hand she said, "So you're the new Chips editor. What makes you think you can do the job?"

The interview didn't go downhill from there, but it sure established who controlled whom. We talked; I asked my questions. She talked; I changed tapes. She talked some more; I changed tapes again. She smoked; I took notes. She started asking me questions; I ran out of tape. She was winding up; I was winding down.

I had expected the usual 30-minute interview. So much for anticipation. My bedtime was now well behind me, and I was sagging. Around 10:45, I noticed a gaggle of young people. However late the hour, these kids were listening to Hopper lecture me and were waiting for a small audience of their own. Hopper didn't disappoint any of them. It was nearly midnight when I tottered to my car, leaving her still holding court with her fan club. The next morning I took a few editorial liberties with my starting time, arriving at the conference around 9:00 a.m. No sooner had I cleared the portals of the Pavilion Convention Center when my boss, panic clearly showing in his eyes, rushed up to say, "Admiral Hopper wants to see you. You left last night before she was finished."

Her passion was teaching, particularly the young:

Her favorite age group to address was young people between the ages of 17 and 20. She believed they know more, they question more and they learn more than people in what she called the "in-between years", ages 40 to 45. She always placed very high importance on America's youth. Hopper often said, "working with the youth is the most important job I've done. It's also the most rewarding." This seems perfectly natural since she spent all her adult life teaching others.

Although her early achievements in computers would have cemented her a place in history, she was a major figure in pushing the technology throughout her life. Today, there are a number of awards named after her. The Grace Murray Hopper Award from the Association for Computer Machinery, awarded to the outstanding young computer professional of the year, selected on the basis of a single recent major technical or service contribution. This award is accompanied by a prize of $35,000. The candidate must have been 35 years of age or less at the time the qualifying contribution was made, and the Government Technology Leadership Awards are known as "The Gracies." The Navy honored her by naming a ship after her: The USS Hopper, only the second warship ever named for a woman from the Navy.

This month is Women's History Month. This post was created on a computer, stored on another, and sent to yours where you're reading it now. One of the people who made this possible, who not only created the technology, but mentored and pushed others, who hated the phrase "we've always done it this way" is responsible for it. Amazing Grace, indeed.