Admiral Grace Hopper
1906-1992
Software pioneers are often thought of as wealthy, male entrepreneurs. Boomers such as Bill Gates, Elon Musk Larry Ellison, Steve Jobs did much to bring their computing to the mass market and were richly rewarded.
But they would have created nothing without the programming tools created by a woman before they born, whose financial reward was her Navy salary and pension…and an incredible legacy for which we should be grateful.
If you’re using a computer, thank the late Admiral Grace Hopper (1906-1992) for her pioneering work, not only as one of the first programmers working for the Navy during World War II, but in driving the creation of the early computer languages, among them COBOL which is still in use.
She also created the first “compiler” that let programmers write code in human-like language that is then converted to the binary codes (zero’s and one’s) that is all a computer really understands.
Admiral Hopper’s contributions to her country, computing and our lives cannot be overstated. She was truly an entrepreneur who laid the foundations for the world we live in. She once remarked “I tell everybody, ‘Go ahead and do it. You can always apologize later.”
This short video provides a concise (and entertaining) overview of her life. Who is Grace Hopper? Meet the Queen of Code.
