Given the credentials 'brilliant mathematician, computing pioneer and military veteran', the first image that comes to mind probably isn't one of a little old lady in glasses and with her hair in a bun. But Grace Hopper wasn't about doing what was expected. She was too busy laying the foundations for a universal computer language, and teaching thousands of others about how computers could change their world.
This is the third in a series of features exploring the unsung heroes of technology, their triumphs and failings, and how they have shaped the way we live, whether society acknowledges it or not.
Admiral Grace Hopper didn't just break into one male-dominated field, but rose to the highest ranks in several, with a career spanning the worlds of mathematics, the military, and early computing. This at a time when women's chief roles were running households and raising children. Hopper was central in developing what would become the foundation of all modern computer programming, essentially allowing computers to understand instructions written in language rather than long lines of ones and zeroes. She was also a passionate advocate of computing in an era when they weren't considered particularly practical, and shared her view of the future with thousands who attended her talks and lectures.
Born in New York City on 9 December 1906, Grace Brewster Murray was the eldest of three children, and grew up in what was a rather unconventional household for its time. Her mother studied geometry despite it being considered an improper pursuit for women, and Hopper soon grew to share this love of mathematics. Her father was no less inspirational, becoming a successful insurance broker even after he had both legs amputated due to hardening of the arteries. He instilled in his children the belief that they could accomplish anything with hard work and a good education, and encouraged Hopper to pursue her passions, regardless of the limiting feminine roles of the day. It was advice Hopper happily followed, demonstrated by the now famous story of her dismantling an alarm clock out of curiosity when she was seven years old. Unable to put it back together, the young Hopper took apart seven more before her mother caught on and limited her to one. Years later, she would have a clock on her wall that ran counter-clockwise, to remind her of the importance of challenging the status quo.
From here, Hopper began what would be a meteoric career, during which she consistently excelled but never lost the desire to ask questions and push boundaries.
Hopper graduated with a BA in mathematics and physics from Vassar College in 1928, becoming a member of the prestigious honour society Phi Beta Kappa in her final year. She then enrolled at Yale University, completing her Master's degree in mathematics at age 23, followed by a PhD four years later, in 1934. In 1930 she married New York University professor Vincent Hopper, but they divorced in 1945, and a short time later he was killed in World War II. Although she lived to be 85, Hopper never remarried and had no children, although she kept his name.
The most important thing I've accomplished... is training young people.
Admiral Grace Hopper
The young graduate went on to teaching - a profession she continued throughout her life, in official and unofficial capacities - becoming an associate professor at Vassar in 1941. She gave talks and lectures well into her 70s, always emphasising the practical role of mathematics, and later computers, in everyday life. This approach was evident in the classroom as well. In one course, for example, she made students plan their own city, work out how much it would cost to run it, and how they would recover these expenses.
Hopper had great faith in the innovative and daring qualities of younger individuals, and has been quoted as saying: “The most important thing I've accomplished... 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 don't forget to take chances."
Making a mark
In what would be a defining moment in her life and career, Hopper decided to join the war effort after the attack on Pearl Harbour, under a programme called Waves (Women Accepted for Voluntary Emergency Service). Her family had a military background, so the move wasn't completely unexpected, but her entry into the Navy certainly was. Hopper was told she was too old (34 years); too light (below the minimum weight of 54kg); and too qualified (a maths professor was better off teaching) for military service, and should stick to being a civilian. Nonplussed, she got special permission from government, an exemption for the weight requirement, and a leave of absence from Vassar College. And so, in December 1943, the determined Hopper was sworn into the US Naval Reserve. She went on to train at Midshipman's School for Women, graduating first in her class in 1944 and acquiring the rank of lieutenant junior grade.
Promptly assigned to the Bureau of Ordnance Computation Project at Harvard University, Hopper dove headfirst into the still nascent world of computing, serving under professor and naval reserve officer, Howard Aiken. Aiken was the principal engineer of IBM's Harvard Mark I computer, a hulking machine some 50 feet wide and weighing five tonnes. Under Aiken's no-nonsense leadership, she learned how to program what was then considered the first large-scale digital computer in the US. In the process, Hopper produced a 500-page instruction manual for Mark I, setting out many foundational principles in computer operation.
She continued to work on both the Mark II and III machines, sharing Aiken's goal of automating long and laborious calculations so researchers' time could be better spent on more inventive work. For Hopper, a key concern was finding ways to accelerate writing code instructions for individual problems, and reducing the number of errors. So she and her colleagues set about compiling collections of subroutines - parts of source code within a larger program - to create what were the earliest forms of software.
According to biographer Kurt Beyer, this was also a turning point in Hopper's life, during which she left her job, her husband, and became an officer “in one of the most gendered institutions of its day”. Hopper became a prominent figure at the Harvard computing project not only due to her skills as a mathematician, but because she was loyal and a team player, notes Beyer. Referred to as a “collaborative rebel”, Hopper developed a keen understanding of the underlying culture in the organisations she worked for, and so managed to hold her own in a largely male-dominated world.
While at Harvard, she became increasingly focused on developing programs that would enable the general public to use computers, rather than computer experts only. As Hopper said in a 1976 interview: “Our attitude should not be that people should have to learn how to code for the computer.” Instead, she argued, the computer should “learn how to respond to people, because I figured we weren't going to teach the whole population of the US how to write computer code. There had to be an interface built that would accept things that were people-oriented and then use the computer to translate to machine code.”
Hopper would soon be on her way to realising this aim, but it wouldn't be while working for the Navy. She had to leave active service in 1946 due to her age, staying on for a period at the Harvard Computational lab as a research fellow.
Computer talk
Hopper's greatest work came about during the next chapter of her career, when she joined the Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation as senior mathematician in 1949. It was here that she began working on the first universal automatic computer, the UNIVAC 1, and eventually developed the breakthrough computer language system called the compiler. Serving as an intermediate program that translated mathematical and later lingual inputs into binary code, the first compiler was introduced in the same year Hopper joined Eckert-Mauchly (later bought by Remington Rand and merged into the Sperry Corporation), and called the A-O.
It was a boon to the scientific community, which now had a system for translating mathematical symbols into code computers could understand. But the A-O compiler didn't get Hopper closer to her goal of making computers more widely accessible. To achieve that, she went on to design something colleagues scoffed at - a program that could recognise and comprehend English commands.
Unperturbed, Hopper developed the 'Flow-matic' B-O, considered the first English language data-processing compiler, which was used to program the UNIVAC I and II. Flow-matic would eventually serve as the foundation for what would become the most ubiquitous computer business language to date - Cobol.
When the task of creating a program for business-oriented tasks arose, Hopper knew the key was creating programming languages that could be understood by a wide variety of people, not only computer specialists. She served as one of two advisors to the programming team that eventually came up with Cobol ('common business-oriented language'), which enabled computers to talk to one another and automate tasks such as payroll and billing. Her role in developing the system earned her the title 'Grandmother of Cobol'.
You manage things; you lead people.
Admiral Grace Hopper
While these years were some of Hopper's most productive, the long hours and lack of a personal life came at a cost. Beyer notes that she dealt with her loneliness by throwing herself into work, but that the pressures of charting new and unknown territory did become overwhelming at times.
In the late 1940s, Hopper battled with alcoholism and attempted suicide, but was steered back on track through an intervention by close friends and family. Little of her personal life or communication is recorded, and while her many interviews reveal a humorous, sharp-witted and inspirational figure, it is in many ways a public persona. Like the navy uniform she spent her last 19 work years in, there is a sense that the projected image - while recognisable and respected - betrays little of the person beneath.
In 1966, Hopper was forced to retire from the Naval Reserves due to her age, but was called back seven months later, when the Navy needed help developing a working payroll system, after over 800 failed attempts. Her service was extended indefinitely, and she officially retired from Sperry in 1971.
During her years with the Navy, Hopper travelled extensively to give talks and lectures on computers and their promise for the future. Her favourite audience was people between the ages of 17 and 20, whom she believed had more questioning minds than their seniors. "Our young people are the future. We must provide for them. We must give them the positive leadership they're looking for...You manage things; you lead people.”
Legacy
Hopper enjoyed a share of recognition in her later years, receiving the first ever Computer Science Man-of-the-Year Award from the Data Processing Management Association in 1969, as well as receiving more than 40 honorary doctoral degrees. During her retirement ceremony, she was awarded the Defence Distinguished Service Medal - the highest civilian award given by the Department of Defence. Her accomplishments earned her several nicknames, including 'Amazing Grace' and 'the grand lady of software', and she had both a US Navy destroyer and a supercomputer named after her.
After seeing an interview with Hopper on the popular TV show 60 Minutes, Republican Philip Crane championed a Bill that would see Hopper receive proper recognition for her accomplishments. A joint resolution was passed in the House of Representatives, and in 1985, she was promoted to commodore and elevated in rank to rear admiral. At the time of her retirement, she was the oldest commissioned officer in the US Navy, having served for 79 years, eight months and five days.
In 1986, an 80-year-old Hopper retired involuntarily from the Navy, and became a senior consultant to Digital Equipment Corporation, a position she held until her death. She died in her sleep on 1 January 1992, and was buried with full military honours.
Grace Hopper was one of computing's pioneers, her achievements revolutionary and her legacy unquestionable. But what remains perhaps even more than her professional accomplishments is her spirit of adventure. As she said in the Navy's Chips Ahoy magazine in 1986: “Humans are allergic to change. They love to say, 'We've always done it this way.' I try to fight that.”
Admiral Grace Hopper practised what she preached, sailing into new waters, and always looking beyond the horizon. Because, in her own words, “a ship in port is safe; but that is not what ships are built for”.
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