11/05/2025
Spotlight Sunday: Grace Hopper (1906 - 1992)
Computer programmer Grace Hopper helped develop a compiler that was a precursor to the widely used COBOL language and became a rear admiral in the U.S. Navy.
- She showed an early interest in engineering and at the age of seven tore apart seven of the family's alarm clocks to see how they worked.
- She became the first woman to earn a Ph.D. in mathematics from Yale University in 1934.
- In 1947, while working on the Harvard Mark II computer, her team found a moth stuck in a relay causing errors. She taped the moth into the logbook and wrote, "First actual case of bug being found." This popularized the term "debugging."
- In 1952, she invented a working compiler.
- When she retired from the U.S. Navy in 1986, at age 79, Grace Hopper was the oldest serving officer in the service.
- President Barack Obama honored her with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in the U.S., for her contributions to computing.
- The USS Hopper, a naval ship that was commissioned in 1997, was named in Grace Hopper's honor.