Grace Hopper
Subtitle: admiral of the cyber sea
By: Kathleen Broome Williams
Contributors: Bradford, James C., writer of foreword
Edition: First Naval Institute Press paperback edition.
Series: Library of naval biography; Library of naval biography
Publisher: Naval Institute Press
Published: 2012
Place of publication: Annapolis, MD
Language: eng
Number of pages: 240
ISBN-13: 9781591149781
Copyright date: 2004
Subjects: Women admirals; Biography; Admirals; Women computer engineers; Computer engineers; Datavetenskap; Historia; Kvinnliga officerare
Description: "When Grace Hopper retired from the U.S. Navy as a rear admiral in 1986 at the age of seventy-nine, she was the oldest serving officer in all the armed forces. A mathematician by training and a pioneer in computer science, the eccentric and outspoken Hopper helped propel the navy into the computer age. She was also a superb publicist for the navy, always ready with a good quote for reporters. Yet in spite of her high profile and the fact that she was the first woman to reach flag rank as a restricted-line officer, "Amazing Grace," as she was called, has not been the subject of a full biography until now." "In this book Kathleen Broome Williams looks at Hopper's entire naval career, starting with the time she joined the WAVES and was then sent to work on the Mark I computer at Harvard. There she became one of the country's first computer programmers, creating firing tables for naval ordnance. Thanks to this early introduction to computing, Hopper enjoyed a distinguished civilian career in commercial computing after the war, gaining fame for her part in the creation of COBOL (common business oriented language)." "In 1967, already past retirement age, Hopper was recalled to active duty at the Pentagon to standardize computer-programming languages for navy computers. That temporary appointment lasted for nineteen years while she standardized COBOL for the entire department of defense." "Based on extensive interviews with Admiral Hopper's colleagues and family as well as archival material never before examined, this biography not only illuminates Hopper's early accomplishments in a field that came to be dominated by men, but also provides an overview of computing from its beginnings in World War II through the late 1980s."--Jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages 221-229) and index.
Table of contents: title: 1; title: Remember your great-grandfather the admiral-- -- 2; title: You're in the navy now -- -- 3; title: Women enter the world of technology -- -- 4; title: A WAVE ordnance officer?-- -- 5; title: I'm in the reserve, retired, and on active duty -- -- 6; title: The Navy's best recruiter?-- -- 7; title: Amazing Grace.