Kurt Beyer, the author of Grace Hopper and the Invention of the Information, took time out of his busy schedule to talk to us about his new book. You can hear Kurt Beyer at the Computer History Museum on March 4th at 12:00 p.m. Registration for the event is free.
What inspired you to write a book about Grace Hopper?
Grace Hopper influenced my own career choices, first as a naval officer, then as an academic, and finally as an entrepreneur. When I arrived at the United States Naval Academy on a hot day in July during the summer of 1986, Admiral Hopper had been influencing naval computer policy for twenty years. I was issued a personal computer, we had access to mil.net, the precursor to the internet. We emailed our professors, signed up for classes online, and our medical and dental records were digitized. The Academy’s core curriculum was modified to incorporate computer use into many of our engineering and math classes, and Hopper herself came to speak to us lowly Plebes to encourage us to lead the computer revolution in and out of the navy.
By this time she was pretty legendary in the Navy, so I was shocked to arrive in Silicon Valley during the great dot.com boom of the 1990s and I found that few people my age knew who she was or what she had accomplished. As I pieced together the evolution of the computer industry for my PhD work at the University of California, Berkeley, I was actually surprised how influential the younger Hopper was during the first 30 years of the industry, so in the end my editors and I at MIT Press thought it best to tell the story of the early computer age through Hopper’s career.
I understand you met Grace Hopper. She is an inspiration to many in our community, what was she like in person?
I first came across Admiral Grace Hopper when I was a teenager attending my sister’s graduation from the College of William and Mary. Two things stand out about that experience. First, I remember this old, fragile looking woman sitting there, knitting, while the other college dignitaries spoke. Not everyday do you get to see an Admiral knit. But once she began speaking, I was struck by her confident, commanding voice, her humor, and her vision of the computing future. I guess I was used to my own grandmother constantly talking about the past…so it was striking to hear this older woman talking about a future that I couldn’t even imagine at the time.
What was the most unusual thing you learned about Grace Hopper in your research?
I found an “intervention” letter from her friend Edmund Berkeley in John Mauchly’s papers at the University of Pennsylvania. It appears that she was a raging alcoholic by 1949, a pattern of drinking which began at the Harvard Computation Lab. She was arrested for drunk and disorderly conduct and spent the night in jail, which prompted the “intervention.” During this period she also attempted suicide.
I dedicate a part of a chapter to this episode for I find it important on three levels:
a) We like our heroes without flaws, but oftentimes the traits that make a person exceptional also have a shadow side. I thought it was important to highlight this shadow side.
b) From 1943 to 1949 Hopper was under a tremendous amount of pressure (war, personal choices)
c) Creating a new industry is difficult enough; doing it at a time when women were being encouraged to leave the workforce is even more impressive.
What do you think Grace would think of all the advances in computing today?
During the 1980s she was so enthused by the personal computer revolution. It was the culmination of her vision for a “democratized” industry. But during interviews in the mid-1980s she insisted that we were only in the “1st inning” of the information age. I think she would have been thrilled by the connectedness that has evolved by 2010, both in the commercial and retail sectors.
She would also be surprised that COBOL was still a dominant programming language in 2010.
What attributes did Grace Hopper possess that made her successful?
She was an “expert” in mathematics, but other traits were significant.
- Leadership: she could inspire people to follow her vision of a computing future and create “urgency” in a team
- Salesmanship: tied to leadership is salesmanship. A major theme of the book is that an inventor must also be a great salesperson to turn the prototype into a mass product or service.
- Humor: Hopper excelled in male dominated cultures. A secret to her success was her quick wit and sense of humor that served to help her navigate hostile cultural environments.
We’ve all read many of Grace Hopper’s famous quotes. Which is your favorite?
“You lead people, and manage things”
“It is easier to ask forgiveness then to get permission”