Grace Murray Hopper (1906 - 1992)

Amazing Grace, the woman who taught computers to speak English

Grace Murray Hopper was known as 'Amazing Grace' by her colleagues, friends and family - and for good reason. A mathematics professor and admiral, Grace worked on the first ever computers and believed they could be programmed in a normal language.

How did she start her career?

Grace was born on 9 December 1906 in New York City and developed an early interest in mechanisms. This led to the dissection of several alarm clocks.

She took a bachelor's degree in mathematics and physics at Vassar College where she also started working as a lecturer when she finished. At the same time, she continued her studies at Yale, taking a Master's and then a PhD in mathematics, which was almost unheard of for women in her day. By the outbreak of war in the US in 1941, she was an associate professor at Vassar.

At 34, Grace, who came from a family with a strong military tradition, volunteered for the US Navy. She was assigned to the Bureau of Ordnance Computation Project at Harvard University. There, she worked on and programmed MARK I, the first full-sized computer. She also worked on MARK II and III, which won her the Naval Ordnance Award and the rank of Real Admiral.

What happened after the war?

At 40, Grace retired from the Navy but continued to work for Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation. She suggested that instead of using binary code, English could be used to programme the new commercial computers.

At first, her contemporaries laughed at her but she continued her work and by the end of 1956, she had developed the first compiler, an intermediary system which translated instructions input in English into binary language.

In 1959, she invented a new computer language - COBOL, a user-friendly business software programme. After a lot of persistence, she ultimately succeeded in getting the language recognised and used by the US Navy and others.

What other legacies did she leave?

The impact Grace had on the development of computing was recognised and rewarded with the Computer Science Man of the Year award in 1969 and the National Medal of Technology, which she was the first woman to receive.

Grace also invented the term 'computer-bug' after she opened up a computer processor to investigate why it had stopped working and found a moth had got stuck in it.

She gave all her time to the Navy and her country and fought for her ideas to be accepted. Her inventions have changed computer programming as we know it today.

She died in 1992 and was buried with full Naval honours at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.