“Mighty oaks from tiny acorns grow.” This proverb is often
attributed to 14th Century England. But I suspect the sentiment is
of a much more ancient origin. And its message to never give up, regardless of
how “small” you are, is universal..jpg)
Rear Admiral Grace Hopper
Perhaps there’s no better example of this than Grace
Hopper. Grace Brewster Murray Hopper (December 9, 1906 to January 1, 1992)
was a computer pioneer and naval officer. She earned a master’s degree (1930)
and a Ph.D. (1934) in mathematics from Yale. Hopper is best known for her
trailblazing contributions to computer programming, software development, and
the design and implementation of programming languages. A maverick and an
innovator, she enjoyed long and influential careers in the U.S. Navy and the
computer industry.
And she was stubborn as a mule, some might say, and determined
to leave her mark on the United States Navy, whether that often-hidebound
organization cared to acknowledge it or not.
After the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the United States’
entry into World War II, Hopper decided to join the war effort. She was
initially rejected because of her age and diminutive size, but she persisted
and eventually received a waiver to join the U.S. Naval Reserve (Women’s
Reserve). In December 1943, she took a leave of absence from Vassar, where she
was an associate professor, and completed sixty days of intensive training at
the Midshipmen’s School for Women at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts.
After receiving her commission (lieutenant junior grade),
Hopper was assigned to the Bureau of Ships Computation Project at Harvard
University. There, she joined a team working on the IBM Automatic Sequence
Controlled Calculator, better known as the MARK I. Hopper's
work on the Harvard Mark I computer, an early electromechanical computer, led
her to realize the need for a more user-friendly programming language. This
insight drove her to develop the first compiler, known as A-0, which enabled
programmers to write code using more human-readable language instead of machine
code or assembly language.
The origin of the term "debugging" in computer programming is often
attributed to Grace Hopper during her work on the Harvard Mark II computer in
1947. While troubleshooting a malfunction, Hopper and her team discovered a
moth trapped in one of the computer's relays, causing the issue. After removing
the moth, Hopper logged the incident in the computer's logbook, noting that
they had "first actual case of a bug being found" and that they had
"debugged" the computer.
In the late 1950s, Grace Hopper played a key role in the development of COBOL
(Common Business-Oriented Language), one of the first high-level programming
languages designed for business applications. COBOL became widely adopted and
is still in use today. Hopper's work in computer programming and her
contributions to the development of compilers and COBOL have left a lasting
impact on the field, earning her the nicknames "Amazing Grace" and
"Grandma COBOL."
Throughout her career in the computer industry, Hopper
remained a Navy reservist. In 1966, age restrictions forced her to retire from
the Navy as a commander. She later called it “the saddest day of my life.” Just
months later, however, she was recalled to active service to help standardize
the Navy’s multiple computer languages and programs. She retired from UNIVAC, a
division of Sperry Rand, in 1971.
An optimist as well as a visionary, Hopper celebrated the
potential of computers. “I think we consistently…underestimate what we can do
with computers if we really try,” she once said. In a 1983 interview on
“60 Minutes,” host Morely Safer asked if the computer revolution was over.
Hopper replied, “No, we’re only at the beginning…We’ve got the Model-T.” Until
the end of her life, Rear Admiral Grace Hopper looked forward with confidence
to new technologies and their problem-solving capabilities.
Hopper remained on active duty for nineteen years. She
retired from the Navy as a rear admiral at the age of 79—the oldest serving
officer in the U.S. armed forces. That same year she went to work as a senior
consultant in public relations at the Digital Equipment Corporation, where she
worked until her death in 1992. Hopper was buried with full military honors in
Arlington National Cemetery.
So, as writers, just think where we'd be without Amazing Grace's contributions to computer science and, ultimately, the word processing programs we depend on today.
(Sources: Biography
of Grace Murray Hopper | Office of the President (yale.edu) and Grace Hopper (Computer
Scientist and Admiral) - On This Day.)
