Born: December 9, 1906, New York, U.S.
Died: January 1, 1992, Arlington, Virginia
Grace Murray Hopper was an American navy officer, mathematician and pioneer in data processing, born in New York City and educated at Vassar College and at Yale University. An associate professor of mathematics at Vassar (1931-44), Hopper joined the navy in 1943. She was assigned to Howard Aiken’s computation lab at Harvard University, where she worked as a programmer on the Mark I (1944), the first large-scale U.S. computer and a precursor of electronic computers. Well known for her work in the 1950s and 1960s at the Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation, later part of Sperry Rand, Hopper was credited with devising the first compiler (1952), a programme that translates instructions for a computer from English to machine language. She helped develop the Flow-Matic programming language (1957) and the Common Business-Oriented Language (COBOL; 1959-61) for the UNIVAC, the first commercial electronic computer. She worked to attract industry and business interests to computers and to bridge the gulf between management and programmers. Hopper taught and lectured extensively throughout the 1960s. She retired from the U.S. Naval Reserve (1943-66) only to be recalled to oversee the navy’s programme to standardize its computer programme and languages. She was elevated to the rank of captain by a special act of Congress in 1973 and to the rank of rear admiral in 1983. Hopper retired from the navy in 1986 and served as a senior consultant with Digital Equipment Corporation.
