Grace Hopper was an American computer scientist and United States Navy Rear Admiral. She was a pioneer in computer technology, and invented the first compiler for a computer programming language, which led to the widely used COBOL language.
Hopper was born in 1906 in New York City. As a child, she became interested in how things worked and at the age of seven began dismantling alarm clocks to figure out their inner workings. It took seven alarm clocks before she figured out how to reassemble them. She graduated from Vassar College in 1928 with a bachelors degree in mathematics and physics, and then continued her education at Yale University. Hopper earned a master’s degree in 1930, and four years later was awarded a Ph.D, becoming one of the first woman to earn such a degree. During this time, she began teaching mathematics at Vassar, and in 1941 was promoted to associate professor.
In 1943, during World War II, Hopper joined the United States Navy Reserve and served in the WAVES. A year later, she graduated first in her class and was assigned to the Bureau of Ships Computation Project at Harvard University as a lieutenant, junior grade. Hopper was one of the first programmers of the Harvard Mark I computer, serving under Howard H. Aiken with whom she coauthored three papers on the computer. Despite requesting to be transferred to the Navy, Hopper continued to serve in the Navy Reserve until 1949. Hopper worked with both the Mark II and Mark II computers as a research fellow at Harvard, and is said to have invented the term “computer bug” when, in investigating a problem, she found a moth had short circuited one of the 17 000 relays in the Mark II.
In 1949, Hopper moved into the private sector and joined the Eckert–Mauchly Computer Corporation (later Remington Rand) as a senior mathematician overseeing programming of the UNIVAC I computer. In 1952, Hopper’s team created the first compiler for computer languages, the Flow-Matic. This led to the widely used Common Business Oriented Language (COBOL), which allowed computers to respond to words as well as numbers. She retired from the Naval Reserve in 1966 with the rank of Commander, but was was recalled to active duty a year later. From 1967 to 1977 served as the director of the the Navy Programming Languages Group in the Navy’s Office of Information Systems Planning before being promoted to Captain in 1973. Hopper worked to develop validation software for COBOL and its compiler to create a COBOL standardisation program for the Navy.
In the 1970s, Hopper developed the implementation of standards for testing computer systems and components which were then utilised by the the National Bureau of Standards (NBS), known today as the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). In 1983, Hopper was promoted to Commodore by special Presidential appointment. She was awarded special approval by Congress to work with the Navy beyond the age of mandatory retirement and in 1985 was made a Rear Admiral. A year later, she retired once more and was awarded the Defense Distinguished Service Medal, the highest non-combat decoration awarded by the Department of Defense. At the time, Hopper was the oldest active-duty commissioned officer in the United States Navy, and served aboard the oldest commissioned ship in the United States Navy. Hopper then worked as a senior consultant for the Digital Equipment Corporation until her death in 1992, when she was interred with full military honors in Arlington National Cemetery.
Hopper received a number of awards during her lifetime, including the National Medal of Technology in 1991—becoming the first female individual recipient of the honour. Hopper’s work in programming has led to young people being inspired to learn how to program, and The Grace Hopper Celebration of Women In Computing Conference is now held annually to encourage women to become computer programmers. The Association for Computing Machinery offers a Grace Murray Hopper Award, and in 2016 the Grace Hopper Academy opened in New York City. It aims to increase the proportion of women in software engineering careers.