Grace Murray Hopper, 1906-1992

IRE Fellow, 1962, "For contributions in the field of automatic programming."

"Amazing Grace", as she is sometimes referred to, is considered the first lady of software and first mother-teacher of all computer programmers. She registered successful careers in academia, business, and the US Navy while making history in the computer field.

Grace Hopper was born and raised in New York City, and spent her summers at the family's cottage on Lake Wentworth in New Hampshire. She was intrigued by the way things worked, and enjoyed taking items apart and trying to put them together.

Grace received her BA in mathematics and physics from Vassar in 1928, where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. She earned her MA and Ph.D. in mathematics from Yale in 1930 and 1934, respectively. She taught at Vassar from 1933 to 1943. She joined the Navy and was commissioned a lieutenant, junior grade in 1944. She was assigned to the Bureau of Ordnance Computation Project at Harvard University and became one of the first programmers of the Navy's Harvard Mark I computer.

While working on the Mark II she traced a malfunction to a moth trapped in a relay. She showed her sense of humor by taping this moth in a logbook with a comment that this bug had been found. (The term 'bug', referring to an unexpected defect, dates back at least to Thomas Edison's early years as a telegrapher.)

In 1946, she joined Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation and stayed with the company (and its successors Remington-Rand and Sperry-Rand) until her retirement in 1971. During her tenure she made a major contribution to programming languages and developed the first compiler, A-0, in 1952 and later modified it to produce the A-2 in 1953.

All through her life Hopper was active in the US Naval Reserves, rising to the rank of Rear Admiral, a rank she received as a special presidential appointment in 1985. In 1991 she was awarded the National Medal of Technology "for her pioneering accomplishments in the development of computer programming languages that simplified computer technology and opened the door to a significantly larger universe of users." She was the first woman to receive this award as an individual.

She longed to see the beginning of the 21^st Century, but passed away in her sleep on 1 January 1992, 9 years short of her dream. She was buried at Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, VA, with full Navy ceremony.

On 6 January 1996 the US Navy christened a destroyer in her honor, the USS Hopper.