Grace Hopper

Pioneer of machine-independent programming languages and COBOL

Hopper was a pioneer of computer programming who advocated for making programming easier by using a language based on English.^[1][2]

Quick Facts

Birth name: Grace Brewster Murray
Born: 9 December 1906
Birthplace: New York City, U.S.
Died: 1 January 1992
Place of death: Arlington County, Virginia, U.S.
Resting place: Arlington National Cemetery
Education: Vassar College (BA); Yale University (MS, PhD)

Facts from the source article.

Life and work

During World War II, Hopper obtained a leave of absence from Vassar and was sworn into the Navy Reserve in 1943.^[3] In 1954, Eckert–Mauchly chose Hopper to lead their department for automatic programming.^[2] She participated in the CODASYL consortium in 1959, helping to create COBOL.^[2] Hopper retired from the Navy on August 14, 1986, as the oldest serving member.^[4]

She died on New Year's Day 1992 at age 85 in Arlington County, Virginia.^[5] Grace Brewster Murray, the firstborn of three children, came into the world in New York City.^[6] Under the supervision of Øystein Ore, Hopper was awarded a Ph.D. in mathematics from Yale in 1934.^[7] Howard H. Aiken led the programming team for the Mark I computer, and Hopper was a member of that staff.^[8]

By 1952, Hopper had completed a program linker for the A-0 System, which she originally termed a compiler.^[2]

What the cited sources add

The Yale biography notes Hopper's father was Walter Fletcher Murray, a Yale graduate.^[9] The same source states Hopper studied with mathematician Richard Courant at New York University during a sabbatical.^[9] The Yale biography reports Hopper wrote the 561-page user manual for the MARK I.^[9] A CBS News article credits Hopper with coining the phrase "bug in the system"^[10]

The IEEE Milestone dedication describes the A-0 compiler as an early innovation in computer programming.^[11] The same IEEE source quotes Hopper saying she wanted programming accessible to "plain, ordinary people, who had problems they wanted to solve"^[11] The Yale biography states Hopper was the first woman to receive the National Medal of Technology as an individual.^[9]

References

Wikipedia, "Grace Hopper" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Cantrell, "Amazing Grace: Rear Adm. Grace Hopper, USN, was a pioneer in computer science", Military Officers Association of America, March 1, 2014, p. 52–55, 106 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
Wikipedia, "Grace Hopper" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Donald D. Spencer, "Computers and Information Processing", C.E. Merrill Publishing Co, 1985; Laplante, "Dictionary of computer science, engineering, and technology", CRC Press, 2001; Bunch, "The Timetables of Technology: A Chronology of the Most Important People and Events in the History of Technology", Simon & Schuster, 1993; Booss-Bavnbek, "Mathematics and War", Birkhäuser Verlag, 2003 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
Wikipedia, "Grace Hopper" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Grace Hopper", www.thocp.net; Kidwell, "Grace Under Pressure", National Museum of American History, September 25, 2018 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
Wikipedia, "Grace Hopper" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Taffe, "Navy Admiral Grace Hopper retires", United Press International, August 14, 1986 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
Wikipedia, "Grace Hopper" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Castellanos-Monfil, "Happy 109th birthday to Yale alumna Grace Hopper, a pioneer in computer science", YaleNews, December 9, 2015 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
Wikipedia, "Grace Hopper" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Williams, "Grace Hopper: Admiral of the Cyber Sea", Naval Institute Press, 2004; Williams, "Grace Hopper: Admiral of the Cyber Sea", Naval Institute Press, 2004 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
Wikipedia, "Grace Hopper" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Grace Hopper", womenshistory.org; Green, "Pioneering Women in American Mathematics: The Pre-1940 PhD's", American Mathematical Society, 2009; Murray, "The first lady of math?", May–June 2010, p. 5–6; Murray Hopper, "New Types of Irreducibility Criteria", American Mathematical Society, 1934; "New types of irreducibility criteria", Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society, 1934, p. 209–234; Ogilvie, "The biographical dictionary of women in science: pioneering lives from ancient times to the mid-20th century", Routledge, November 2013 ( en.wikipedia.org
Wikipedia, "Grace Hopper" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Biography of Grace Murray Hopper Office of the President", president.yale.edu (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
"Biography of Grace Murray Hopper Office of the President", president.yale.edu. facts only, no text reused. president.yale.edu
Carson, "White House honors two of tech's female pioneers", CBS News, November 23, 2016. facts only, no text reused. cbsnews.com
Scheffler, "Recognizing a Pioneer: The IEEE Dedicates Milestone to Grace Hopper at Penn Engineering", Penn Engineering Blog, May 16, 2024. facts only, no text reused. blog.seas.upenn.edu

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Grace Hopper (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.