FREE ESSAY ON DR. GRACE MURRARY HOPPER

DR. GRACE MURRARY HOPPER

Dr. Grace Murray Hopper was born on December 9, 1906. As a child Grace Hopper enjoyed
learning about machines, technology and other countries cultures. Following her mother's
love for mathematics and her father's love for literature, Grace had high expectations
for herself. Family life was large influence as she grew up, from the close relationship
she had with her grandfather, a surveyor in New York City, she learned about real life at
a young age. Her father, Walter Fletcher Murray, was a successful insurance broker, also
taught Grace the importance of a good education to succeed in life. Her mother, Mary
Campbell Horne Murray, perused a career in geometry by special arrangement even though it
was not an encouraged job for women at this time. Grace's great-grandfather, Alexander
Russel, inspired her interest in the Navy. Russel had been a rear admiral for the US
Navy, a position Grace also filled in her lifetime. Grace's parents were progressive in
their views of education for females, firmly certifying Grace's pursuit of higher
learning. Her father believed that Grace deserved a college education as much as his son
did, and, with the coming of the depression, he thought it overbearing in order to secure
a job in desperate economic times. To that end, Grace attended Vassar College in 1924,
and quickly distinguished herself there in the disciplines of science, specifically
mathematics and physics. She graduated in 1928 with Phi Beta Kappa honors and a Vassar
College Fellowship, and with that scholarship financed continued graduate study in math
at Yale University, earning there an MA in 1930 and a Ph.D. in 1934, as well as two
Sterling Scholarships and an election to Sigma Xi. It was also during that time that
Grace married Vincent Hopper, an English teacher from New York University. After the
outbreak of World War II, Grace enlisted in the Navy, despite the disapproval of female
cadets. With a Wanting to follow her Grandfathers footsteps Grace perused a naval career
even though she did not meet the weight and height requirements to join WAVES (Women
Accepted for Voluntary Emergency Service). But Grace received a weight and height waiver
and took a leave of absence from Vassar College to join the Navy, even though the
government thought that Grace's mathematics skills would be better used at home. But she
overcame this obstacle too and joined the Midshipman's School for Women. Grace graduated
first in her class as Lieutenant Junior Grade Grace Murray Hopper. From there Grace was
assigned to work at the Bureau of Ordnance Computation Project, at Harvard University, to
work with computers. Hopper worked under Commander Howard Aiken, and helped work with the
Mark I, the first computer automatically sequenced to calculate the angles for the naval
guns when the weather is bad. Hopper continued to work on the Mark II and the Mark III.
For her achievements with this series she was given the Naval Ordinance Award in 1946. 
After the War many of the WAVES went back to their normal lives, but Grace, having just
divorced her husband Vincent Foster Hopper, wanted to stay in the Navy. But Grace had
just turned forty and the maximum age was thirty-eight, so Grace had to leave. She stayed
at the Harvard Computational Lab, still being a member of the Naval Reserves. 
In 1966, the Navy asked Hopper to retire again, but after seven months, they found they
couldn't work without her and asked her return. Grace was asked to return to work for six
months, but she ended up staying indefinitely. Upon graduating, Grace was assigned to the
Bureau of Ordinance Computation at Harvard University. There she was greeted by Commander
Howard Aiken who introduced her to Mark I as a computer engine. After coming acquainted
with the device, Grace received her first mission from Aiken, which was to have the
coefficients for the interpolation of the arc tangents by next Thursday. Officers Robert
Campbell and Richard Bloch assisted her in the design of her computer program, which
consequently made her the third person ever to program the first large-scale
automatically sequenced digital computer in the world. When Grace was programming it,
Mark I was being used to calculate the angles at which naval guns were to be aimed. A
plethora of calculations were needed because the angles depended on weather conditions.
Creating programs for the machine was similarly tedious for Grace and the company. The
coding sheets we used had three columns on the left [for code numbers] and we wrote
comments on the right which didn't go into the computer, as she said. The values were
translated to punch tape, which was subsequently input into the computer. With the
accustomed problems associated with the Mark development and the inherent difficulty in
its programming, results were slow achievements. One of their many problems was the
proverbial computer bug, except that this time it was a literal problem. During the
building of the Mark II, the predecessor of the former computer engine, the computer
suddenly and for no apparent reason stopped. Upon inspection of the computer, Grace and
her team found a moth, which had flown into a relay from an open window. The moth had
been pulverized by the relay and consequently had caused the device to fail. The term bug
was thus popularized to signify any system malfunction. 
A new machine BINAC was soon developed programmed in the more effective C-10 language,
which according to Grace, has been the basis for most codes since. A was add, M was
multiply, B was bring, C was clear; it was a beautiful code. Performed in octal, the
programs forced Grace to teach herself octal arithmetic, which she eventually mastered
with great proficiency. She subsequently realized a need to simplify the computing
process, to make it more layperson friendly. Grace pursued different avenues to achieve
this goal. Grace created her first compiler with the Sperry Corporation in 1952. Known as
the A-0, the system was a set of instructions that translated mathematical code into
machine language. Later the A-1 and A-2 systems evolved under her direction, and became
the forerunner to modern programming languages. She pioneered the integration of English
into programs, as well, with the B-0 compiler, later to be known as the FLOW-MATIC.
Targeted for business applications, Grace's machine were effectively using FLOW-MATIC to
understand English phrases. By 1957 three major languages existed for computers: APT,
FORTRAN, and FLOW-MATIC. Each language, however, could only operate on a specific
platform, and with the proliferation of disparate languages the use of a single, uniform
format came into demand. The universal language to remedy this problem was COBOL, and
even though she was not involved in the project, much of which was based on Grace's
FLOW-MATIC. Throughout Grace Hopper's life she achieved many awards that other women had
never been recognized for. In 1964 she was awarded the Society of Women Engineers, SWE
Achievement Award. Many people think of the Computer Sciences Man of the Year Award her
greatest achievement. When she received this award in 1969, she was the first person ever
assigned this award, and the first women to be presented any award by the Data Processing
Management Association. Grace was the first woman to be inducted into the Distinguished
Fellow British Computer Society in 1973. Grace also achieved many awards from the
Colleges and Universities that she attended and taught at, such as the Upsilon Pi
Epsilon, Honorary Member from Texas A&M; Honorary Doctor of Engineering, Newark College
of Engineering; Wilbur Lucius Cross Medal and Yale University. Grace taught at many
colleges and universities in her life and gave many motivational speeches, her favorite
teaching aid was a piece of wire that was the length of a nanosecond (about one foot),
the maximum distance electricity can travel in wire in one-billionth of a second. She
would then compare the nano-second to the microsecond that was over a thousand feet long.
On January 1, 1992, Grace Hopper died at the age of 85. Even after her death Grace
continues to influence many peoples lives. The impact she had on the world of programming
has changed computers forever. She also influenced the naval and other military services
through her perseverance and her plans for the future. She refused to let anything get in
the way of her success.
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