Grace Hopper: Admiral Of The Cyber Sea (Library of Naval Biography) (Hardcover)

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One of the most important women in the history of computers and the U.S. Navy, Hopper was born Grace Murray in 1906. Her well-to-do family believed in educating daughters, as well as sons, and she ended up with a doctorate in mathematics in the 1930s. That qualified her for work as a WAVE officer on early computers during World War II. Her career survived a divorce, though she temporarily left the navy to help develop COBOL. She returned as a reserve officer and, before retiring in 1986 as a rear admiral and the oldest serving officer in the navy, did enough work for three people in bringing the navy into the computer age. Her indefatigability carried her through a great many barriers as if they had not existed, and her love for the navy let her make allowances for obstacles she could not surmount. Williams' book on her is well done, badly needed (though there have been several children's books on her), and a credit to the publisher's Library of Naval Biography series. Roland Green
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: US Naval Institute Press (November 15, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1557509522
• ISBN-13: 978-1557509529
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #222,036 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Admiral was a lady., December 12, 2004

By	John Matlock "Gunny" (Winnemucca, NV) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I was at a coctail party at a computer show when this lady in a white Navy uniform came it. It was Grace Hopper. Someone asked her for an autograph. Admirals don't need to carry pens around, so I promptly offered her mine. And after she signed one of her business cards for him, I said that I'd like one also, so she signed another. I still have it.

This all came back to me as soon as I saw this book. I picked it up, I opened it to a page where it talks about her first reporting to Howard Aiken at Harvard to work on the Mark I computer. Aiken handed her a manual and told her to write a program. Almost exactly twenty years after she was given the manual, the Army did exactly the same to me - here's a manual, here's the equasion I want solved.

Even in her advanced years at the time I met her, she was still one very bright lady. This was in the very early days of the PC, and she had a basic understanding that enabled her to predict many of the things that were going to happen while the rest of were stumbling around thinking about word processing.

Grace Hopper was quite a lady, and that's reflected in this book. Between 1934 and 1937 hers was the only Ph.D. in mathematics awarded to a female. It was quite a life that she led, and that too is reflected in this book. Adm. Hopper lived in a time when women didn't need to be educated, they were just going to be housewives, and they certainly weren't going to be Navy Admirals. This book is a story of one remarkable woman, but more than that it's the story of computing and of our changing times.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An admirable lady described by less admirable author, January 24, 2005

By	A. Dolan (Malden, MA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I had a chance to hear Grace Hopper speak in 1970's in the early days of my own computer career. She was impressive then, and, after reading this book, I'm even more impressed by her career and her accomplishments, which were underrepresented in the 'computing history' to which I had previously been exposed. Through interviews and delving into untold amount of original source material, Ms. Williams has found MANY fascinating tidbits about Grace and the environment in which she lived and worked. For example, Grace DIDN'T invent the term computer bug. However, the interesting facts are strung together in an oft times confusing narrative - it took me much longer to read than usual. And the index didn't mention her engaging physical representation of a nanosecond. A worthwhile book, nonetheless, for those interested in computing history, and/or women who made a difference in technology.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Very Impressive Lady!, January 26, 2006

By	Loyd E. Eskildson "Pragmatist" (Phoenix, AZ.) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Grace Hopper's contributions to computing were very impressive - I knew that before reading this book because I was a COBOL programmer. Nonetheless, "Admiral of the Cyber Sea" provided a very informative and interesting biography of this lady. It was also interesting to learn of the signal achievements of her siblings - reminding me of President Eisenhower, one of many "stars" in his household.

Born in 1906, Grace Hopper graduated from Vassar, and got a PhD in mathematics from Yale in 1933. She married in '43, and divorced 15 years later. During WWII she followed her grandfather (an admiral) and joined the Navy - WAVES division. At that time she wrote programs for the Mark I computer housed in Harvard - focus was on ballistic trajectories, and accomplished at the speed of 3 operations/second. The Mark I was an electro-mechanical giant - 50' long, 8' tall, and 8' deep, with 3 million wire connections and weighing about 5 tons, and only having 72 words of storage.

The term "Bug" came about when the Mark II was stopped by a relay failure - a moth had been trapped inside one of the relays. The moth was fished out, and taped to the computer's log book.

Hopper then went to work on compiler development, having foreseen their potential for drastically reducing programming efforts while reducing "bugs." Retired from the Navy Reserve in 1966 as a Commander.

However, the Navy soon realized it needed Hopper's continue service, and brought her back. She was impatient with bureaucracy - and displayed it with a clock that ran backwards and a Jolly Roger flag on her desk. One might suspect that Hopper would be one wedded to the "big iron" computers of her day - however, she early on saw the potential and value of microcomputers, and for networking minis.

Commodore Hopper received her new rank (equivalent to today's Rear Admiral) in 1983 at a White House ceremony attended by President Reagan. Retirement took place 12/86 on the deck of the U.S.S. Constitution - the Navy's oldest commissioned ship. The very next day civilian Hopper, twice retired from the Navy, reported for full-time work at DEC.

Grace Hopper died in 1992 at the age of 80, having worked and given almost daily speeches cross-country until the prior Summer. Truly an inspirational achiever!