Nicknamed the “Queen of Code” and “Amazing Grace,” Grace Brewster Murray Hopper was a teacher, mathematician, author, computer scientist, and Rear Admiral in the United States Navy. Hopper was one of the many multi-talented women in STEM and more.
Early Life
Grace Brewster Murray was born in 1906 in New York City as the eldest of three children of Walter Fletcher Murray and Mary Campbell Van Horne, who had Scottish and Dutch ancestry. She was a she was fascinated and curious about devices—a characteristic she retained into adulthood. Her curiosity would extend to alarm clocks, and by the age of seven, Murray had already disassembled seven of them to discover how they functioned before her mother realized. From then on, she was restricted to only one clock.
In the advancing years, Murray kept an alarm clock that ran counterclockwise. As an explanation for her unusual clock, she stated “Humans are allergic to change. They love to say, ‘We’ve always done it this way.’ I try to fight that.” This became one of her well-known and inspiring quotes.
(Image Courtesy of Vassar)
Education
According to Murray, many women during her time had the sole goal of getting married, and those who pursued a career were limited to being only teachers. In fact, Murray herself had followed these norms, as she expected her future occupation to be a teacher or actuary.
From elementary to high school, Murray attended the Wardlaw + Hartridge School in Edison, New Jersey. When Murray was 16, she applied to Vassar College for further education, where she was initially rejected, but accepted the subsequent year. Here, inspired by her math professors, Gertrude Smith, and Henry Seely White, she tutored others in math and physics. This is how she discovered her gift in teaching.
Murray graduated Phi Beta Kappa (the old honor society) in 1928 with a bachelor’s degree from Vassar College in mathematics and physics. In 1930, Murray earned her master’s degree from Yale.
During the same year, Murray married a professor named Vincent Foster Hopper, who she divorced 15 years later, in 1945. She kept his surname and became Grace Brewster Murray Hopper. Hopper would not marry again.
In 1931, Hopper started teaching mathematics at Vassar College, and by 1941, she had become the associate professor after her class became popular due to her flair in teaching and creative and sociable personality.
Continuing her education at Yale, Hopper was guided by Norwegian mathematician Øystein Ore. She received a PhD in mathematics herself in 1934. Hopper’s desertion, titled “New Types of Irreducibility Criteria” was also published that same year.
During that time, Hopper taught herself multiple languages and surveyed numerous college courses; biology, astronomy, architecture, and philosophy were just a few.
In addition to Hopper’s natural curiosity, she was a well-rounded individual, familiar with many topics.
World War II
In 1941, Hopper was settled in a new house bordering the east of the New York University’s Courant Institute for Mathematics’s campus, for she had a faculty study fellowship there in addition to being a part-time teacher at Barnard. She was busy.
But then, World War II altered Hopper’s life.
In summary, Hopper changed her career and joined the United States Navy for a total of around 42 years and ultimately became a Rear Admiral.
In 1944, at the beginning of her career, Hopper was sent to Howard Aiken’s Bureau of Ordinance Computation Project at Harvard University to work on the descendent and better version of practically, the first digital computer. This successor was called Mark II, and this is where Hopper’s lasting interest in computers was born.
Mark II was an absolute game-changer once “perfected.” According to The Miscellany News, “[Mark II was] given to Harvard University, but used by the U. S. Navy during the war[.] [It] [had] completed 32 problems since it was put to work in the spring of 1944. One of these, amounting to 235 pages of figures, [was] to be given to the Vassar library…Hopper has estimated that it would have taken over 300 years to compile the results without the calculator.”
Mark II was an extremely impactful, history-making device, and Hopper, along with some other programmers, had been the one to publicize it.
After World War II – COBOL
After working on UNIVAC (Universal Automatic Computer), which was basically the first electronic computer, and inventing the compiler, software that let the programmer “instruct” the computer to fabricate another program, Hopper created COBOL (Common Business Oriented Language). COBOL is a universal software language that’s still widely used and helpful after decades. Until 1971, Hopper continued working with computer software and educated others about computer language.
Retiring
In 1896, Hopper, the oldest active-duty naval officer, officially retired as a Rear Admiral. She received many honorary degrees and was often posted online as a result.
She was also the recipient of several awards, such as the first-ever Computer Science Man-of-the-Year Award from the Data Processing Management Association in 1969.
Death
In 1992, on January 1st, Grace Brewster Murray Hopper died in her sleep at 85 years old at her home in Arlington, Virginia.
Grace Hopper is an excellent example of a woman in STEM that was extremely impactful. She accomplished a lot and opened up more opportunities for women by breaking the norms and pursuing her interests. She deserves to be remembered just like many other women in STEM.
Works Cited
“12 historical women in STEM you’ve probably never heard of.” The College of St. Scholastica, 16 Nov. 2015, www.css.edu/about/blog/12-historical-women-in-stem-youve-probably-never-heard-of/.
“Grace Murray Hopper ‘1928.” Vassar, https://vcencyclopedia.vassar.edu/distinguished-alumni/grace-murray-hopper/.
“13 Women in STEM Who Changed the World.” International Women’s Day, 9 Mar. 2016, www.internationalwomensday.com/Activity/7213/13-Women-in-STEM-Who-Changed-the-World.
“Grace Murray Hopper | Looking Back: Grace Murray Hopper’s Younger Years.” archive.today, http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/bl_Grace_Murray_Hopper.
“Biography of Grace Murray Hopper.” Yale University, https://president.yale.edu/biography-grace-murray-hopper.
“Women’s History Month: Which Women Engineers Have Succeeded by Breaking the Rules?” All Together, 29 Mar. 2021, https://alltogether.swe.org.
Taffe Jr., Richard. “Navy Admiral Grace Hopper retires.” UPI News, 14 Aug. 1986, www.upi.com/Archives/1986/08/14/Navy-Admiral-Grace-Hopper-retires/2916524376000/.
“Grace Murray Hopper (1906-1992): A legacy of innovation and service.” YaleNews, 10 Feb. 2017, news.yale.edu/2017/02/10/grace-murray-hopper-1906-1992-legacy-innovation-and-service.
About The Author
Hi! I’m Callie, a rising 8th grader from California. STEM holds so many fascinating topics I’d love to learn more about and further research! Contact me at CallieChan8@gmail.com
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