III 

115TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION S. RES. 593 

Honoring the life and legacy of Grace Hopper, professor, inventor, 

entrepreneur, business leader, and Rear Admiral of the Navy. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

JULY 25, 2018 

Mr. WYDEN (for himself and Mrs. FISCHER) submitted the following 

resolution; which was considered and agreed to 

RESOLUTION 

Honoring the life and legacy of Grace Hopper, professor, 

inventor, entrepreneur, business leader, and Rear Admiral of the Navy. 

Whereas Grace Hopper was born on December 9, 1906, in 

New York City, New York; 

Whereas, in 1928, Grace Hopper graduated with honors from 

Vassar College with degrees in physics and mathematics; 

Whereas Grace Hopper would go on to earn both her masters 

degree and Ph.D. from Yale University, earning her 

Ph.D. in 1934; 

Whereas, after the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the entry 

of the United States into World War II, Grace Hopper 

felt called to serve her nation and enlisted in the Navy; 


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•SRES 593 ATS 

Whereas Grace Hopper was assigned to the Bureau of Ships 

Computation Project at Harvard University, where she 

worked on the first electromechanical computer in the 

United States, which was known as the MARK I; 

Whereas, while assigned to the Computation Project, Grace 

Hopper— 

(1) served as second in command in charge of operations; 

(2) wrote the 561-page user manual for the MARK 

I, considered the first book about modern computers; and 

(3) used the MARK I to solve various wartime 

mathematical problems for the Navy that saved thousands of lives, including the implosion problem for the 

Manhattan Project; 

Whereas, after World War II, Grace Hopper remained in the 

Navy as a reservist, continuing to work on the MARK II 

and MARK III computers; 

Whereas, in the 1950s, Grace Hopper helped pioneer the 

computer industry at the Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation and Remington Rand, where she assisted in developing the Universal Automatic Computer I and II, the 

first commercial electronic computers; 

Whereas, while working on the Universal Automatic Computer I and II, Grace Hopper invented the first compiler, 

which is the cornerstone of modern automatic programming; 

Whereas, in 1953, Grace Hopper was the first person to theorize code as words instead of symbols, which was considered impossible by her peers, and after 3 years her team 

was using the first written-word programming language; 


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Whereas the development of a written-word programming 

language was an incredibly important step in the development of computer science, as it allowed people who lacked 

advanced engineering and mathematics backgrounds to 

program computers; 

Whereas, in 1959, Grace Hopper organized leaders from government, the private sector, and academia to create a 

universal business computer programming language 

called ‘‘common business-oriented language’’, or 

‘‘COBOL’’; 

Whereas, in 2018, COBOL supports over 30,000,000,000 

transactions per day and 90 percent of all global financial transactions; 

Whereas throughout her work in the private sector, Grace 

Hopper remained a naval reservist until the age of 60, 

calling her required retirement from the Naval Reserve 

‘‘the saddest day of my life’’; 

Whereas, just a few months after her retirement from the 

Naval Reserve, ‘‘Amazing Grace’’ was called again to the 

Navy for active service, where she would serve for another 19 years until her final military retirement as Rear 

Admiral of the Navy at the age of 79; 

Whereas Grace Hopper has received many honors for her 

groundbreaking ideas and contributions over the years, 

including becoming the first inductee to the Computer 

Hall of Fame, receiving the U.S. National Medal of 

Technology, the naming of the destroyer USS Hopper in 

her honor, and receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom; 


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Whereas, of all of the contributions and service of Grace 

Hopper, she considered her work as a mentor and teacher the most valuable; 

Whereas Grace Hopper once remarked that ‘‘If you ask me 

what accomplishment I’m most proud of, the answer 

would be all the young people I’ve trained over the 

years’’; 

Whereas, today the ‘‘Grace Hopper Celebration’’ is the largest gathering of women in computing with 18,000 

attendees in 2017; 

Whereas Grace Hopper passed away January 1, 1992, at the 

age of 85, and was interred with full military honors in 

Arlington National Cemetery; and 

Whereas Grace Hopper served as a trailblazer for other 

women and men who would follow her in the field of computer science, academia, and the Armed Forces: Now, 

therefore, be it 

1 Resolved, That the Senate honors the pioneering ideas 

2 and service of Grace Hopper, professor, inventor, entre3 preneur, business leader, and Rear Admiral of the Navy. 

Æ 


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