Grace Hopper: Programming Pioneer

Diminutive in stature but with a presence that would fill a room, Hopper is considered one of the most influential figures in the adoption of a universal programming language, hence her nickname "grandma COBOL." She passed away in 1992, but during her 40-plus years in the U.S. Navy, this intellectual, quick-witted woman,who never hesitated to speak her mind,helped evolve the computer into a technology that would be more accessible to everyone through a common language.

"Grace Hopper was responsible for the publicity and the idea of getting software to do [programming] language translation. People weren't really thinking about that until she came up with the idea," said Michael Williams, head curator of the Computer Museum History Center in Mountain View, Calif.

"She was the one who pushed at the idea by saying, 'This is where we should be going.' It wasn't obvious at the time that she was right. She was a futurist in that respect," Williams said.

Born in New York in 1906, Hopper's first exposure to computers came in 1943, when she joined the U.S. Navy to serve her country during World War II. After receiving bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees in mathematics from Vassar College and Yale University, she was assigned to the Bureau of Ordnance Computation Project at Harvard University, where she worked at Harvard's Cruft Laboratories on the Mark series of computers.

Hopper's first computer, the Mark I, measured 51 feet long, 8 feet tall and 8 feet wide and was automatically sequenced to calculate the angles for naval guns during inclement weather. At the end of World War II, she was discharged from the Navy but stayed in the reserves, joining the Harvard faculty as a research fellow to work on the Mark II and Mark III computers.

In 1949, Hopper joined Eckert-Mauchly Computer, which later merged with Sperry Gyroscopes to become Sperry Rand, and later Univac. There she worked on the Univac I, which ran a thousand times faster than the Mark I. It was at Eckert-Mauchly in 1952 that Hopper developed the first compiler, an intermediate program that translated mathematical code into machine language. Her first compiler, called the A-0, was followed by the A-1 and A-2.

Beginning with the B-0 compiler, later known as the Flow-Matic, she championed the integration of English phrases into programming languages. The Flow-Matic was designed to translate a language that could be used for business tasks such as automatic billing and payroll calculations. Hopper often jokingly explained that the language came about "because I couldn't balance my checkbook."

The Flow-Matic later became the basis for the universal programming language COBOL. "Up until that time, computer programs had to be written either in assembly code, machine code or there was one compiled for mathematical engineering problems," Hopper said in a 1983 interview for the "Voice of America" radio show. "But I felt that more people should be able to use the computer and that they should be able to talk to it in plain English. And that was the beginning of COBOL."

In 1966, after 23 years of service to the Navy, she was asked to retire because of her age,60. Seven months later, at the request of Norman Ream, then Special Assistant to the Secretary of the Navy for Automatic Data Processing at the Naval Data Automation Command, she was recalled to active duty for what was to be a six-month assignment. When the six months were up, however, her orders were changed to say her services would be needed indefinitely.

Hopper achieved the rank of admiral,the same rank her grandfather held,in 1985. She retired from active duty for the last time in 1986 as the nation's oldest active officer.

"Grace lived and died for her craft," Williams said. "She also lived and died for the Navy. When no one else was listening, she'd make caustic remarks about the Army and the Air Force."

Hopper also often joked about her lifetime of service in the Navy, including the fact that she was discharged and brought back to active duty twice before retiring for good. "I seem to do a lot of retiring," she said.

The computer programming pioneer was also known for her wit and diplomacy. "She'd let you know what she thought of something, but she wasn't aggressive about it. She was more constructive and helpful in the way she told you," said colleague John A.N. (JAN) Lee, a professor of computer science at Virginia Tech. "She had a saying: 'Ships are safe in harbor, but that's not where they're intended to be.' That's how she looked at everything," Lee said. "She was not content to sit back and watch the world go by. If something needed to get done, she'd do it herself or she had people who would do it for her."

In her naval career, Hopper had some ensigns on her staff whom she trained for "midnight raids": If she needed to find out something from the Pentagon, she would dispatch her ensigns to "raid" it at night and get the information, Lee said.

Hopper's legendary wit led many people attribute the origin of the term "bug",referring to a computer glitch,to her. When a moth trapped in a relay in the Mark II caused an error, she taped the insect to a page in the computer log book and wrote, "First actual case of bug being found."

"There are many examples in history of other people using that term. There's an example of [Thomas] Edison using the word 'bug' to describe a problem," the Computer Museum History Center's Williams said. "Yes, a bug was found in a relay in the Mark II, and Hopper was making a pun."

Hopper loved public speaking and addressed audiences of all sizes about the importance of science and technology in everyday life. "She spent a lot of time traveling around and talking to student groups," said Virginia Tech's Lee. "Because she was so close by in Washington, it was just a given that every year she'd come and talk to my class."

Hopper also enjoyed speaking to young people,which she defined as anyone less than half her age,and to women in science and engineering, Williams said. She often lectured on embracing change. "Humans are allergic to change," Hopper once said. "They love to say, 'We've always done it this way.' I try to fight that. That's why I have a clock on my wall that runs counterclockwise."

In addition, Hopper liked to demonstrate the difference between a nanosecond and microsecond. "She'd talk about computers and she'd say, 'People talk about these going into nanoseconds. It's hard to visualize.' Then she'd fish around in her purse and pull out a foot of wire, the length illustrating the speed light travels in one nanosecond," Williams said. "Then she'd say, 'But then people talk about how minor the difference is between a microsecond and nanosecond. I have microsecond right here,' and pull out 1,000 feet of wire and throw it on the desk. 'That's a microsecond,' she'd say. It really helped people see the difference."

Hopper died at age 86 and was buried with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery in Washington. She left behind two townhouses filled with papers, plaques and items of distinction.

"Grace was a pack rat and kept almost everything. Being single, she lived in a small place. Her office there was completely overrun with papers, so she moved into the apartment next door to live," Williams said.

"There were a lot of regrets when we cleaned out her place,a lot of things that should have been saved," said Lee. "One room alone was full of plaques she received from all the places where she spoke. Unfortunately, we had to dump them all because there was no place for them." Her technical papers, however, were donated to the Smithsonian Institute and the Charles Babbage Institute, Lee said.

In 1996, the Navy honored Hopper's memory by commissioning the U.S.S. Hopper, an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer ship also known as "Amazing Grace." It's a moniker befitting both the ship and its namesake.