Grace Hopper

Grace Murray Hopper
Rear Admiral Grace M. Hopper, 1984
Nickname(s)	"Amazing Grace"
Born	(1906-12-09)December 9, 1906 New York City, New York, U.S.
Died	January 1, 1992(1992-01-01) (aged 85) Arlington, Virginia, U.S.
Place of burial	Arlington National Cemetery
Allegiance	United States of America
Service/branch	United States Navy
Years of service	1943–1966, 1967–1971, 1972–1986
Rank	Rear admiral (lower half)
Awards	Defense Distinguished Service Medal Legion of Merit Meritorious Service Medal American Campaign Medal World War II Victory Medal National Defense Service Medal Armed Forces Reserve Medal with two Hourglass Devices Naval Reserve Medal Presidential Medal of Freedom (posthumous)

Grace Brewster Murray Hopper (née Murray; December 9, 1906 – January 1, 1992) was an American computer scientist and United States Navy Rear Admiral. In 1944, she was one of the first programmers of the Harvard Mark I computer and invented the first compiler for a computer programming language. She popularized the idea of machine-independent programming languages, which led to the development of COBOL, one of the first high-level programming languages. She also popularized use of the term bug (already established in other technical contexts) in reference to computer software or hardware design failures.

Owing to her accomplishments and her naval rank, she was sometimes referred to as "Amazing Grace". The U.S. Navy Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Hopper was named for her, as was the Cray XE6 "Hopper" supercomputer at NERSC.

On November 22, 2016, she was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama.

Hopper was born in New York City. She was the eldest of three children. Her parents, Walter Fletcher Murray and Mary Campbell Van Horne, were of Dutch and Scottish descent, and attended West End Collegiate Church. Her great-grandfather, Alexander Wilson Russell, an admiral in the US Navy, fought in the Battle of Mobile Bay during the Civil War.