Taking Nothing for Granted

by Bill Doughty

Grace Hopper -- a woman who literally gave voice to the computer revolution and the information age -- retired in 1986 as a Navy rear admiral at the age of 79.

Reading about Hopper’s struggles and achievements is rewarding in two ways...

• It can be easy to take our laptops, iPads and smart phones for granted. From paper tape feeds to floppy disks to wireless digital computing, we’ve come so far in our ability to connect and communicate.
• As recently as during Hopper’s lifetime -- less than one hundred years ago -- women achieved the right to vote in 1920.  Today, free nations cannot take the rights of women for granted.

My next blogpost will focus more on “Amazing Grace,” a visionary thinker who contributed so much to the information age and who, thanks to her family’s influence, valued reading, math and science.

According to Kathleen Broome Williams, author of Grace Hopper, Admiral of the Cyber Sea, “Surrounded by books in their home... Grace was raised in a family where intellectual curiosity was encouraged and acumen rewarded."

More next week...

Thirty-five years ago, August 1976, Capt. Grace M. Hopper, USNR, Head of the Navy Programming Language Section of the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations (OP 911F), works at her Desk. Official U.S. Navy photograph, by PH2 David C. MacLean.