HOPPER, GRACE

mathematician (1906 - 1992)

She was the driver for modern US computer technology. Modern computer history began when Lt (JG) Hopper was assigned to work for Howard Aiken at Harvard in the late 1940s. She spent her career working for the US Navy. At her retirement she was the oldest person on active duty with the US Navy. She coined the term 'computer bug' during her work with the first electronic computers when she found the moth that had shorted out two tubes. She invented the modern subroutine. She built the first A-O compiler which went live on November 4, 1952 on the UNIVAC I to predict the Eisenhower win after 7% vote returns. The Navy and the computer industry felt her work and contributions so valuable that they kept returning her to active duty after retirement. She invented the language APT. She verified the language COBOL.

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