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. Return to Homepage