The Grace Murray Hopper Service Center
On 27 September 1985, the Navy Regional Data Automation Center (now the Naval Computer and Telecommunications Station), San Diego, broke ground on a 135,577 square foot data processing facility, The Grace Murray Hopper Service Center. The building contains a data processing center as well as training facilities, teleconferencing capabilities, telecommunications and expanded customer service areas. A small room-sized museum contains numerous artifacts, awards and citations that Hopper received during her lengthy career. The guest visitor's book contains the names of some prominent people paying homage to the computer pioneer. There is also a Grace Murray Hopper Center for Computer Learning at Brewster Academy in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire, where she spent her childhood summers.
Admiral Grace Hopper - Irreplaceable Lady
In 1986, eighty-year-old Admiral Grace Hopper retired involuntarily from the Navy. The ceremony was held in Boston on the USS Constitution, fulfilling Hopper's final request before ending her Naval career. Three hundred of her friends and admirers and thirty family members were there to watch as the end came to her 43-year Naval career. As then Secretary of the Navy John Lehman said in his speech, "I'm reminded of that famous story by P.T. Barnum. About the turn of the century, his principle attraction, the human cannonball, came to P.T. Barnum and said, Mr. Barnum, I just can't take it any longer. Two performances a day and four on weekends are just too much. I'm quitting.' Barnum said, You can't possibly quit. Where will I find someone else of your caliber?' They realized Hopper was irreplaceable."In her retirement speech, instead of dwelling on the past, she talked about moving toward the future, stressing the importance of leadership. "Our young people are the future. We must provide for them. We must give them the positive leadership they're looking for...You manage things; you lead people." It was at her retirement in 1986 that she was presented the highest award given by the Department of Defense - the Defense Distinguished Service Medal - one of innumerable awards she received from both the Navy and industry.
Other awards include the Navy Meritorious Service Medal, the Legion of Merit and the National Medal of Technology, awarded last September by President George Bush. She also received the first computer sciences "man of the year" award from the Data Processing Management Association (DPMA) in 1969. Other achievements include retiring from the Navy as a Rear Admiral and the oldest serving officer at that time, and being the first woman to be awarded a Ph.D. in Mathematics from Yale University. For a CAPT Grace Hopper, Head of the Navy Programming Section of the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations (OP-911F), at work in her office in August 1976. She was the first Naval Reserve woman to be called back to active duty.
The most damaging phrase in the language is: We've always done it this way. - Quote Grace Murray Hopper
Retirement didn't slow Admiral Grace Hopper down. Shortly thereafter, she became a Senior Consultant to Digital Equipment Corporation where she was active until about 18 months before her death. She functioned in much the same capacity she did when she was in the Navy, traveling on lecture tours around the country, speaking at engineering forums, colleges, universities and computer seminars passing on the message that managers shouldn't be afraid of change. In her opinion, "the most damaging phrase in the language is We've always done it this way.'"Grace said in many of her speeches, "I always promise during my talks that if anyone in the audience says during the next 12 months, 'But we've always done it that way,' I will immediately materialize beside him and haunt him for the next 24 hours and see if I could get him to take a second look." Embracing the unconventional, the clock in her office ran counterclockwise.
