Pioneer computer scientist and Rear Admiral Grace Murray Brewster Hopper (1906–1992) was born on this day in New York City. With an MA and PhD from Yale, she taught mathematics at Vassar before joining the U.S. Navy during World War II, bringing her brilliant mind to a new frontier of machines, language, and possibility.

“One accurate measurement is worth a thousand expert opinions,” she once said. Hopper trusted evidence, curiosity, and hands-on experimentation more than hierarchy or habit, choosing to test ideas rather than accept limits.

“Amazing Grace” created the first computer compiler in 1952, translating programming code into machine language. “Nobody believed that,” she remembered. “I had a running compiler and nobody would touch it. They told me computers could only do arithmetic.” She kept going, convinced computers could speak closer to human language and open new doors for everyone.

She next built Flow-Matic, a compiler for business data processing (1957). That language became the foundation for COBOL — Common Business-Oriented Language (1959–1961), the groundbreaking programming language used on UNIVAC’s first mass-produced commercial business computers and countless systems that followed.

“Humans are allergic to change,” she observed. “They love to say, ‘We’ve always done it this way.’ I try to fight that.” On her office wall, she hung a clock that ran counter-clockwise, a playful reminder to question assumptions and imagine better solutions.

Hopper became the first woman to receive the prestigious National Medal of Technology in 1991. With passion and perseverance, the visionary “Grandmother of COBOL” continued to teach and mentor well into her later years, shaping the platform for the programming languages of today — and inviting all of us to sail out to sea and do new things.