My latest article is about Admiral Grace Hopper, one of the pioneers in computing in the US. A new thing I learned about her in researching this is that she was skilled in business as well as computing. I think the necessity of business skills among computer professionals is often overlooked, but this underscores their importance.

Julie

I think you can remove US from the above. She was one of the pioneers of computing, full stop.

I was also going to comment about the emphasis in your article on her being a woman until I reached your sentence:

However, I feel like sometimes the fact that she was an important and well-known woman in early computing is allowed to overshadow the fact that she was an important person in early computing

I agree. She was a most important person in early computing.

I had the honor of listening to her talk and meeting her briefly back in the 80's. What a fantastic, powerful leader, and funny to boot!

Her trademark was handing out a foot of copper wire to audience members, as that was about the distance that an electron travels in a nanosecond.

Definitely one of the great Americans and overall scientists and engineers of the 20th century.

So in light of Peter's comment about the saying she was a "pioneer in the US", I want to clarify what I was trying to say - Grace Hopper was a computing pioneer and intimately involved with most (maybe all) early computing in the US.

Don, it's so neat that you got to meet her! I read that with the wire, she'd emphasize not wasting time, even a nanosecond. I know I could definitely improve in that area! (I don't think I waste a lot of time, but I definitely waste nanoseconds!)

Julie