Grace Hopper (person)

Born as Grace Brewster Murray in December 9, 1906, Admiral Grace Hopper was a pioneer in the field of computer science, and an inspiration to women scientists everywhere.

She began teaching mathematics in Vassar in 1941, but quit to join the navy in 1943. Working for the military, she was assigned to work with Howard Aiken in Harvard, programming the Mark I, a state-of-the-art computer that could store 72 words, and perform 3 additions per second.

Famous (infamous?) for creating the language COBOL, Dr. Hopper published in the course of her life over 50 papers on software and programming languages. In fact, she is credited as the developer of the first compiler. Grace Hopper is also popularly known (not entirely accurately) as the person who coined the term "bug", when she traced a computer error to a literal bug -- a moth trapped in a relay.

Grace Hopper was the first naval reserve to be called back into active duty (in 1966, to help standardize the COBOL language after the navy could not create a payroll software after 823 attempts). She was the first person to get the Computer Science Man-of-the-Year Award by the Data Processing Management Association, and the first woman to become Distinguished fellow of the British Computer Society. She was also one of the first women to be elevated to the rank of Rear Admiral.

Grace Murray Hopper died on January 1, 1992. She was buried with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery