Grace Hopper: Admiral of the Cyber Sea (review)

It has been said that biography is one of the toughest writing genres. Analyzing someone's life requires maintaining a careful balance between interpreting the subject's significant milestones and providing an historical context for them without losing the reader. Williams does this and more as she brilliantly blends her account of Hopper's life with its long careers in the Navy and in corporations and the development and commercialization of the computer.

As readers learn how Hopper simultaneously succeeded in three male dominated worlds—the U.S. Navy, computer programming, and corporate America—Williams reveals an energetic, diligent, disciplined, humble, and inspiring person; a conscientious, caring, and committed leader; and an effective negotiator between the Navy and corporations. We also learn that Hopper was a pack rat, a doll collector, a voracious reader, a lover of shoes, a die-hard Washington Redskins fan, a pack-a-day smoker, and a renowned speaker representing the Navy and corporations around the world. Despite her phenomenal success, Hopper never took herself too seriously and maintained a great sense of humor. Williams dispels some of the myths surrounding Hopper, i.e., she did not coin the term "computer bug" and she was not the first female admiral in the Navy.

Williams attributes Hopper's success to her commanding knowledge of mathematics and of computer programming, a long-term relationship with corporations, and negotiating skills. Her programming achievements were largely due to her ability "to visualize operations in physical terms and to reduce complex procedures to simple component parts" (p. 79). She perceived each new assignment, however challenging, as an opportunity for her and her team to reach beyond their grasp. In fact, she resented the status quo. She was quick to acknowledge her staff's effort versus taking sole credit. Hopper's endless supply of energy allowed her to be a naval reservist, hold senior ranking positions in companies, to teach at least one night a week, and to take courses simultaneously throughout most of her career.

Like Williams, I was surprised to learn that Hopper left no indication of her thoughts on the Korean War, Vietnam War, or the women's movement of the 1960s and the 1970s. Moreover, Hopper always responded in the negative when asked about encountering sexual harassment or gender discrimination in the Navy. That may have been in part because "She thought not of herself as a woman in the Navy but as a person in the Navy who was also a woman" (p. 179).

Williams discovered that despite Hopper's many awards, honorary degrees, and other recognitions, she was most proud of having developed and operated the Mark I under Howard Aiken's leadership and "all the young people she had taught" (p. 195). She believed that the future lay in the hands of our youth. She also noted that many members of her staff went on to to have exemplary careers of their own.

Williams nicely illustrates her well-written text with photographs and provides a useful glossary, bibliography, and essay analyzing her sources. Professors teaching business, women's history, sociology, and naval history should consider this text for their classes. The general reader will also find the time well invested. One of Hopper's biggest problems was dealing with individuals who resisted change, which is something that most of us deal with today. Anyone who doubts a female's ability to excel in mathematics should buy this biography.

Williams has provided a wonderful example of how biography should be done.