Grace Hopper’s graduation from Midshipman’s School, 1944
Grace Hopper upon graduation from Midshipman’s School, June 27, 1944. Grace Murray Hopper Collection, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution.
The First “Computer Bug”
The First “Computer Bug”, September 9, 1945. Courtesy of the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Dahlgren, VA., 1988. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph.
Commodore Grace M. Hopper, USNR
Official portrait photograph of Commodore Grace M. Hopper, USNR, January 20, 1984. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph.
Grace Hopper was born on December 9, 1906 in New York City. She was the first of her parents’ three children. Grace was fortunate to grow up in a wealthy family that highly valued education. Her father, Walter Fletcher Murray, was an insurance salesman. Her mother, Mary Campbell Van Horne Hopper, was a housewife who loved to study math and encouraged Grace’s interest in the subject. Grace’s maternal grandfather was a civil engineer for the city of New York and often took Grace on surveying trips.
Grace’s family encouraged her to explore. When she was seven years old, she took apart her alarm clock to see how it worked. When she could not put it back together, she decided to expand her study by taking apart the seven other alarm clocks found throughout her family’s large house. Her mother supported her interest, but asked Grace to focus on one clock in the future. Later in life, Grace would describe her childhood as a place full of educated relatives, supportive parents, and a house full of books that fed her “insatiable curiosity.”
Grace attended the Hardridge School in Plainfield, New Jersey, before enrolling in Vassar College at the age of 18. In 1928, she graduated with a degree in mathematics. She went on to graduate school in mathematics at Yale, earning her master’s degree in 1930 and her Ph.D. in 1934. In 1930, Grace met and married Vincent Hopper. The couple had no children and divorced in 1945.
After completing her Ph.D., Grace joined the faculty at her alma mater, Vassar College. Grace eagerly transformed the study of math at Vassar. She threw away old textbooks, demanded strong writing from her math students, and updated the curriculum to include the latest research in the field of physics.
When the United States entered World War II, Grace found herself in a frustrating position. While many of her female friends and relatives volunteered for nursing positions, joined the military, or took jobs in factories, Grace was required to continue her job. As more men entered the military, male-dominated fields like math were in desperate need of workers. The government refused to accept volunteers who worked in high-need fields. In other words, they did not want to lose Grace’s intellect and experience to other forms of war work. While Grace respected this idea, she hated staying behind. She was embarrassed by the fact that she had a comfortable college teaching job while other women were directly contributing to the war.
Grace’s onl