With the most recent anniversary of her passing last week, I’m reminded of a memory of Grace Hopper (d: 1 January 1992, age: 82), who I admired and once had the chance to meet.

As the Internet bubbles, a fragment of information sometimes percolates to the top and reveals itself in a way that generates a thread of memories that can make you feel both lucky and a little sad.

We were not close, she was not my mentor.  She was (and is) a part of my professional cultural history, a history I share with thousands of other military members in all of the services and millions of people in the technology fields.  I feel not only lucky, but honored to have spent some time with her.

 How often do you get to spend the day with a (no hyperbole) legend?  I do not use the term legend lightly.  She was so renowned in certain fields that everyone in those fields study her career.  The best part of her legend was that the general public quite probably never heard of her or what she accomplished, yet her career and her work has affected almost every single person alive today.  Continue reading →