grace hopper grace brewster murray hopper nemurray december 9 1906 january 1 1992 was an american computer scientist and united states navy rear admiral one of the first programmers of the harvard marki computer she was a pioneer of computer programming who invented one of the first compiler related tools she popularized the idea of machineindependent programming languages which led to the development of cobol an early highlevel programming language still in use today hopper attempted to enlist in the navy during world war ii but was rejected because she was 34 years old she instead joined the navy reserves hopper began her computing career in 1944 when she worked on the harvard mark i team led by howard h aiken in 1949 she joined the eckertmauchly computer corporation and was part of the team that developed the univac i computer at eckertmauchly she began developing the compiler she believed that a programming language based on english was possible her compiler converted english terms into machine code understood by computers by 1952 hopper had finished her program linker originally called a compiler which was written for the a0 system in 1954 eckertmauchly chose hopper to lead their department for automatic programming and she led the release of some of the first compiled languages like flowmatic in 1959 she participated in the codasyl consortium which consulted hopper to guide them in creating a machineindependent programming language this led to the cobol language which was inspired by her idea of a language being based on english words in 1966 she retired from the naval reserve but in 1967 the navy recalled her to active duty she retired from the navy in 1986 and found work as a consultant for the digital equipment corporation sharing her computing experiences owing to her accomplishments and her naval rank she was sometimes referred to as amazing grace early life and education grace hopper as told by us chief technology officer megan smith problems playing this file see media help hopper was born in new york city she was the eldest of three children her parents walter fletcher murray and mary campbell van horne were of scottish and dutch descent and attended west end collegiate church23 grace was very curious as a child this was a lifelong trait at the age of seven she decided to determine how an alarm clock worked and dismantled seven alarm clocks before her mother realized what she was doing she was then limited to one clock for her preparatory school education she attended the hartridge school in plainfield new jersey hopper was initially rejected for early admission to vassar college at age 16 her test scores in latin were too low but she was admitted the following year she graduated phi beta kappa from vassar in 1928 with a bachelors degree in mathematics and physics and earned her masters degree at yale university in 1930 in 1934 she earned a phd in mathematics from yale she was married to new york university professor vincent foster hopper 190676 from 1930 until their divorce in 1945 she did not marry again but chose to retain his surname career world war ii hoppers signatures on a duty officer signup sheet for the bureau of ships computation project at harvard which built and operated the mark i hopper had tried to enlist in the navy early in world war ii she was rejected for multiple reasons at age 34 she was too old to enlist and her weight to height ratio was too low she was also denied on the basis that her job as a mathematician and mathematics professor at vassar college was valuable to the war effort hopper in a computer room in washington dc 1978 photographed by lynn gilbert univac in 1949 hopper became an employee of the eckertmauchly computer corporation as a senior mathematician and joined the team developing the univac i when hopper recommended the development of a new programming language that would use entirely english words she was told very quickly that 11 in 1952 she had an operational linkloader which at the time was referred to as a compiler she later said that nobody believed that and that she had a running compiler and nobody would touch it they told me computers could only do arithmetic in 1954 hopper was named the companys first director of automatic programming and her department released some of the first compilerbased programming languages including mathmatic and flowmatic cobol hopper at the univac i console c 1960 in the spring of 1959 computer experts from industry and government were brought together in a twoday conference known as the conference on data systems languages codasyl hopper served as a technical consultant to the committee and many of her former employees served on the shortterm committee that defined the new language cobol an acronym for common businessoriented language the new language extended hoppers flowmatic language with some ideas from the ibm equivalent comtran hoppers belief that programs should be written in a language that was close to english rather than in machine code or in languages close to machine code such as assembly languages was captured in the new business language and cobol went on to be the most ubiquitous business language to date from 1967 to 1977 hopper served as the director of the navy programming languages group in the navys office of information systems planning and was promoted to the rank of captain in 1973 standards in the 1970s hopper advocated for the defense department to replace large centralized systems with networks of small distributed computers any user on any computer node could access common databases located on the network119 she developed the implementation of standards for testing computer systems and components most significantly for early programming languages such as fortran and cobol the navy tests for conformance to these standards led to significant convergence among the programming language dialects of the major computer vendors in the 1980s these tests and their official administration were assumed by the national bureau of standards nbs known today as the national institute of standards and technology nist retirement hopper being promoted to the rank of commodore in 1983 in accordance with navy attrition regulations hopper retired from the naval reserve with the rank of commander at age 60 at the end of 1966 after republican representative philip crane saw her on a march 1983 segment of 60 minutes he championed hjres 341 a joint resolution originating in the house of representatives which led to her promotion to commodore by special presidential appointment effective november 8 1985 the rank of commodore was renamed rear admiral lower half and hopper became one of the navys few female admirals following a career that spanned more than 42 years admiral hopper took mandatory retirement from the navy on august 14 1986 at a celebration held in boston on the ussconstitution to commemorate her retirement hopper was awarded the defense distinguished service medal the highest noncombat decoration awarded by the department of defense at the time of her retirement she was the oldest activeduty commissioned officer in the united states navy 79 years eight months and five days and had her retirement ceremony aboard the oldest commissioned ship in the united states navy 188 years nine months and 23 days admirals william d leahy chester w nimitz hyman g rickover and charles stewart were the only other officers in the navys history to serve on active duty at a higher age leahy and nimitz served on active duty for life due to their promotions to the rank of fleet admiral post retirement following her retirement from the navy she was hired as a senior consultant to digital equipment corporation dec hopper was initially offered the job position by rita yavinsky but she insisted on applying for the position at dec and going through the typical formal interview process she also sent a letter to yavinskys boss explaining that she would be available on alternating thursdays receiving a high salary and have access to an unlimited expense account if she were to be exhibited at their museum of computing as a pioneer after the proposal from hopper she was hired as a fulltime senior consultant as part of her position she would report to yavinsky in this position hopper represented the company at industry forums serving on various industry committees along with other obligations she retained that position until her death at age 85 in 1992 hopper was a goodwill ambassador in her primary activity in this capacity she lectured widely about the early days of computing her career and on efforts that computer vendors could take to make life easier for their users she visited most of digitals engineering facilities where she generally received a standing ovation at the conclusion of her remarks she often recounted that during her service she was frequently asked by admirals and generals why satellite communication would take so long so during many of her lectures she illustrated a nanosecond using salvaged obsolete bell system 25 pair telephone cable she cut it to lengths of 118 inches 30cm the distance that light travels in one nanosecond and handed out the individual wires to her listeners although no longer a serving officer she always wore her navy full dress uniform to these lectures which is not allowed under us department of defense regulation 32 cfr 532a2 the most important thing ive accomplished other than building the compiler is training young people they come to me you know and say do you think we can do this i say try it and i back em up they need that i keep track of them as they get older and i stir em up at intervals so they dont forget to take chances anecdotes photo of first computer bug a moth throughout much of her later career hopper was much in demand as a speaker at various computerrelated events she was well known for her lively and irreverent speaking style as well as a rich treasury of early war stories she also received the nickname grandma cobol while she was working on a mark ii computer at harvard university in 1947 grace hopper is famous for her nanoseconds visual aid people such as generals and admirals used to ask her why satellite communication took so long she started handing out pieces of wire that were just under one foot long 118 inches 30cmthe distance that light travels in one nanosecond she gave these pieces of wire the metonym nanoseconds jay elliot described grace hopper as appearing to be all navy but when you reach inside you find a pirate dying to be released death on new years day 1992 hopper died in her sleep of natural causes at her home in arlington virginia she was 85 years of age she was interred with full military honors in arlington national cemetery dates of rank ensign december 1943 lieutenant junior grade june 27 1944 lieutenant january 1 1946 lieutenant commander april 1 1952 commander july 1 1957 retired december 31 1966 recalled to active duty august 1967 retired 1971 recalled to active duty 1972 captain august 2 1973 commodore december 15 1983 rear admiral lower half november 8 1985 final retirement august 31 1986 awards and honors military awards top row defense distinguished service medal1986 legion of merit1967 meritorious service medal1980 2nd row presidential medal of freedom2016 posthumous american campaign medal1944 world war ii victory medal1945 bottom row national defense service medal with bronze service star1953 1966 armed forces reserve medalwith two bronze hourglass devices1963 1973 1983 naval reserve medal1953 other awards 1964 hopper was awarded the society of women engineers achievement award the societys highest honor in recognition of her significant contributions to the burgeoning computer industry as an engineering manager and originator of automatic programming systems 1969 hopper was awarded the inaugural data processing management association man of the year award now called the distinguished information sciences award 1971 the annual grace murray hopper award for outstanding young computer professionals was established in 1971 by the association for computing machinery 1973 first american and the first woman of any nationality to be made a distinguished fellow of the british computer society 1982 american association of university women achievement award and an honorary doctor of science from marquette university 1985 honorary doctor of letters from western new england college now western new england university 1986 upon her retirement she received the defense distinguished service medal 1986 honorary doctor of science from syracuse university 1987 the first computer history museum fellow award recipient for contributions to the development of programming languages for standardization efforts and for lifelong naval service 1988 golden gavel award at the toastmasters international convention in washington dc 1991 national medal of technology 1991 elected a fellow of the american academy of arts and sciences 1996 usshopperddg70 was launched nicknamed amazing grace it is on a very short list of us military vessels named after women 2001 eavan boland wrote a poem dedicated to grace hopper titled code in her 2001 release against love poetry 2001 the gracies the government technology leadership award were named in her honor 2009 the department of energys national energy research scientific computing center named its flagship system hopper 2009 office of naval intelligence creates the grace hopper information services center 2013 google made the google doodle for hoppers 107th birthday an animation of her sitting at a computer using cobol to print out her age at the end of the animation a moth flies out of the computer 2016 on november 22 2016 hopper was posthumously awarded a presidential medal of freedom for her accomplishments in the field of computer science 2017 hopper college at yale university was named in her honor legacy grace hopper was awarded 40 honorary degrees from universities worldwide during her lifetime born with curiosity the grace hopper story is an upcoming documentary film places the navys fleet numerical meteorology and oceanography center is located at 7 grace hopper avenue in monterey california the national weather services san francisco monterey bay area hydrology geomorphology office is at 21 grace hopper avenue grace m hopper navy regional data automation center at naval air station north island california grace murray hopper park located on south joyce street in arlington virginia is a small memorial park in front of her former residence river house apartments and is now owned by arlington county virginia brewster academy a school located in wolfeboro new hampshire united states dedicated their computer lab to her in 1985 calling it the grace murray hopper center for computer learning hopper had spent her childhood summers at a family home in wolfeboro an administration building on naval support activity annapolis previously known as naval station annapolis in annapolis maryland is named the grace hopper building in her honor vice admiral walter e ted carter announced on 8 september 2016 at the athena conference that the naval academys newest cyber operations building would be named hopper hall after admiral grace hopper this is the first building at any service academy named after a woman in his words grace hopper was the admiral of the cyber seas the us naval academy also owns a cray xc30 supercomputer named grace hosted at the university of marylandcollege park building 1482 aboard naval air station north island housing the naval computer and telecommunication station san diego is named the grace hopper building building 6007 c2cnt west command control communications computers intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance or c4isr center of excellence in aberdeen proving ground maryland is named the rear admiral grace hopper building grace hopper academy is a forprofit immersive programming school in new york city named in grace hoppers honor it opened in january 2016 with the goal of increasing the proportion of women in software engineering careers a bridge over goose creek to join the north and south sides of the naval support activity charleston side of joint base charleston south carolina is named the grace hopper memorial bridge in her honor programs women at microsoft corporation formed an employee group called hoppers and established a scholarship in her honor hoppers has over 3000 members worldwide beginning in 2015 one of the nine competition fields at the first robotics competition world championship is named for hopper on february 11 2017 yale university announced its intent to rename calhoun college one of its twelve undergraduate residential colleges after hopper following years of controversy about its previous namesake john c calhoun hopper was a graduate of yale university receiving an ma in 1930 and a phd in 1934 a named professorship in the department of computer sciences was established at yale university in her honor joan feigenbaum was named to this chair in 2008 in popular culture in his comic book series secret coders by gene luen yang the main character is named gracie hopper grace hopper celebration of women in computing grace hopper celebration of women in computing is a convention for women in the field of computer science and technology it is named after hopper to honor her for her work and influence in the field of computing and her push for more women to enter and stay in the tech field it features a wide array of educational and professional development courses and workshops including a lesson on compilers which hopper invented and pioneered and a career fair in order to help connect women in the computing field with potential employers her legacy was an inspiring factor in the creation of the grace hopper celebration of women in computing obituary notices betts mitch computerworld 26 14 1992 bromberg howard ieee software 9 103104 1992 danca richard a federal computer week 6 2627 1992 hancock bill digital review 9 40 1992 power kevin government computer news 11 70 1992 sammet j e communications of the acm 35 4 128131 1992 weiss eric a ieee annals of the history of computing 14 5658 1992 united states navy portal software testing portal biography portal code debugging the gender gap grace hopper celebration of women in computing list of pioneers in computer science systems engineering women in computing women in the united states navy list of female united states military generals and flag officers timeline of women in science beyer kurt w september 30 2009 grace hopper and the invention of the information age 1st ed cambridge massachusetts mit press isbn9780262013109 marx christy august 2003 grace hopper the first woman to program the first computer in the united states women hall of famers in mathematics and science 1st ed new york city rosen publishing group isbn9780823938773 norman rebecca june 1997 biographies of women mathematicians grace murray hopper agnes scott college retrieved 20141117 williams kathleen broome november 15 2004 grace hopper admiral of the cyber sea 1st ed annapolis maryland naval institute press isbn9781557509529 williams kathleen broome 2001 improbable warriors women scientists and the us navy in world war ii annapolis maryland naval institute press isbn9781557509611 williams book focuses on the lives and contributions of four notable women scientists mary sears 19051997 florence van straten 19131992 grace murray hopper 19061992 mina spiegel rees 19021997 grace hopper at the mathematics genealogy project wikimedia commons has media related to grace hopper wikiquote has quotations related to grace hopper oral history of captain grace hopper interviewed by angeline pantages 1980 naval data automation command maryland radm grace hopper usn ret at the wayback machine archived february 24 2010 from chips the united states navy information technology magazine grace hopper navy to the core a pirate at heart 2014 to learn more about hoppers story and navy legacy navymil the queen of code 2015 a documentary film about grace hopper produced by fivethirtyeight norwood arlisha grace hopper national womens history museum 2017 articles related to grace hopper vtetimelines of computingcomputing before 1950 19501979 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s softwareopensource software 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s programming languages hypertext technology operating systems dos family windows linux virtualization development malware computer science artificial intelligence quantum computing internet web browsers internet conflicts men in computing charles babbage john backus george boole vint cerf john cocke stephen cook j presper eckert david a huffman bob kahn brian kernighan andrew koenig donald knuth joseph kruskal douglas mcilroy john von neumann dennis ritchie guido van rossum bjarne stroustrup ken thompson linus torvalds alan turing paul vixie larry wall stephen wolfram steve wozniak women in computing kathleen antonelli jean bartik adele goldstine lois haibt betty holberton ada lovelace margaret hamilton grace hopper nancy leveson marlyn meltzer klara dan von neumann frances spence ruth teitelbaum vtesoftware engineeringfields computer programming requirements engineering software deployment software design software maintenance software testing systems analysis formal methods concepts data modeling enterprise architecture functional specification modeling language orthogonality programming paradigm software software archaeology software architecture software configuration management software development methodology software development process software quality software quality assurance software verification and validation structured analysis orientations agile aspectoriented object orientation ontology service orientation sdlc modelsdevelopmental agile eup executable uml incremental model iterative model prototype model rad up scrum spiral model vmodel waterfall model xp other spice cmmi data model er model function model information model metamodeling object model systems model view model languages idef uml usl sysml softwareengineers victor basili kent beck grady booch fred brooks barry boehm peter chen danese cooper ward cunningham tom demarco edsger w dijkstra delores m etter martin fowler adele goldstine margaret hamilton c a r hoare lois haibt mary jean harrold grace hopper watts humphrey michael a jackson ivar jacobson alan kay nancy leveson stephen j mellor bertrand meyer david parnas trygve reenskaug winston w royce james rumbaugh mary shaw peri tarr elaine weyuker niklaus wirth edward yourdon related fields computer science computer engineering project management risk management systems engineering category commons vteinductees to the national womens hall of fame197019791973 jane addams marian anderson susan b anthony clara barton mary mcleod bethune elizabeth blackwell pearl s buck rachel carson mary cassatt emily dickinson amelia earhart alice hamilton helen hayes helen keller eleanor roosevelt florence sabin margaret chase smith elizabeth cady stanton helen brooke taussig harriet tubman 1976 abigail adams margaret mead mildred babe didrikson zaharias 1979 dorothea dix juliette gordon low alice paul elizabeth bayley seton 198019891981 margaret sanger sojourner truth 1982 carrie chapman catt frances perkins 1983 belva lockwood lucretia mott 1984 mary mother harris jones bessie smith 1986 barbara mcclintock lucy stone harriet beecher stowe 1988 gwendolyn brooks willa cather sally ride ida b wellsbarnett 199019991990 margaret bourkewhite barbara jordan billie jean king florence b seibert 1991 gertrude belle elion 1993 ethel percy andrus antoinette blackwell emily blackwell shirley chisholm jacqueline cochran ruth colvin marian wright edelman alice evans betty friedan ella grasso martha wright griffiths fannie lou hamer dorothy height dolores huerta mary jacobi mae 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jx20100825003 nla 36506213 snac w6nt1htb sudoc 079152783 viaf 873229 