Retirement2

Grace Hopper

By hturko

  • Birth of Grace

    She was born in New York City as Grace Brewster Murray to parents Walter Fletcher Murray and Mary Campbell Van Horne.

  • Marriage

    After receiving her master's in mathematics, Grace married Vincent Hopper and took his name.

  • Began teaching at Vassar

    After graduating from Vassar College and Yale for her master's degree in mathematics, Grace returned to Vassar to begin a teaching career. She taught at the same time she was pursuing her Ph.D. at Yale.

  • Earned PhD in Mathematics

    In 1934, Grace became one of the first woman to earn a Ph.D. in math from Yale University. She studied under the guidance of Howard Engstrom, who was a computer pioneer of the time. Her full Ph.D. was in mathematics and mathematical physics.

  • Making WAVES

    Making WAVES
    Congress authorized the Navy Women's Reserve's new program, WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service) in 1942 during World War II. After a year of persuasion, Grace was given a leave of absence from teaching at Vassar and joined the WAVES in 1943 at 36 years old. Her grandfather had been in the US Navy, and Grace followed in his footsteps. This time of war allowed women to join the workforce in unprecedented numbers, giving her an opportunity in otherwise male-dominated areas.

  • New Assignment

    New Assignment
    Due to her history in mathematics, Grace was a valuable asset. She was sent to Harvard University as a member of the Bureau of Ordnance Computation Project. She was assigned to Howard Aiken, who was a physics and mathematics professor. He had helped create the Mark I, the first Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator, and he ran a lab where they conducted analyses and calculations of weapons.

  • Divorce

    Though she and her husband divorced, Grace continued to go by the surname of Hopper for the rest of her life.

  • Released from Active Duty

    Grace was released from active duty in the Navy, but she continued to be in the Naval Reserve and worked as a contractor on the successors to the Mark I.

  • First Bug

    First Bug
    The Mark II calculator was being tested at Harvard when it encountered an error. Grace was able to trace that error to a dead moth that became trapped in the computer, in a relay, attracted by the heat and light of the electricity. Once it was extracted, the insect was taped to the logbook and the incident was recorded. This became the first use of the term "computer bug".

  • Movement into private industry

    Movement into private industry
    Since the war was over and she wished to continue working with computers, Grace joined the Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation in Philadelphia.

  • Creation of UNIVAC

    Creation of UNIVAC
    Though developed by by J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly, Grace was one of the people who contributed to the creation of the UNIVAC I (Universal Automatic Computer). UNIVAC was unveiled by the US Census Bureau officially in 1951. These computers were the predecessors of today's digital computers, using vacuum tubes at the time.

  • Compiler Creation

    Compiler Creation
    Grace's team created the first computer language compiler, which translates written words into code that computers can understand. This was known as the A-0 system. The creation of this compiler led to the adaptation of the later language, COBOL (Common Business Oriented Language).

  • Flow-Matic

    Her division in the firm, once the Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corp., then Remington Rand (1951), then Sperry Rand Corp. (1955), developed the first English data-processing compiler. This compiler was known as Flow-Matic.

  • Retirement

    Retirement
    After being with the Navy for over 40 years, Grace retired at age 79 as a rear admiral. At the time of her retirement, she was the oldest serving officer. She was also one of only a few female flag officers at the time.

  • Awarded

    Grace was the first individual woman to be awarded the National Medal of Technology, which was a unique honor.

  • Death

    Death
    Grace died ay 85 years old. Since she kept every record and paper that she worked on, much of her work was sent to the Smithsonian Institute, and she left behind a vast legacy.

  • USS Hopper

    USS Hopper
    The guided missile destroyer USS Hopper (DDG 70) was named to commemorate Grace and honor her memory.

  • Legacy

    Legacy
    20 years after her death, Grace was awarded with the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Barack Obama. This honored her achievements in the field of mathematics and computers. The same year in October, the US Naval Academy opened a new Center for Cyber Security Studies and named it after Grace, calling it Hopper Hall.