Science & Technology
A legendary life
Grace Hopper
Grace Brewster Murray Hopper
1906 – 1992
Computer scientist and U.S. Navy rear admiral who pioneered machine-independent programming.
Her story
A life that changed history
Grace Hopper was among the first programmers of the Harvard Mark I and developed one of the earliest linkers. Her theory of machine-independent programming led to FLOW-MATIC and helped shape COBOL, one of the earliest widely used high-level programming languages.
“You see by '51 I'm beginning to work on our first compiler.”
Smithsonian computer oral-history interview, July 1968