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My grandmother who is in her 80s was one of the US military's first female programmers... and she was a widow... and she was German expatriate (as you can imagi

by agentgt 10y ago

My grandmother who is in her 80s was one of the US military's first female programmers... and she was a widow... and she was German expatriate (as you can imagine the difficulty of that post WWII). They programmed in punch cards and drank a lot of coffee. If it sounds like I am bragging.. I am.. I am very proud of her. What I'm not proud of is not spending enough time with her to extract more details. I did ask her a similar question about being a German widow working with predominately males and she basically had the same answer as the articles mother... "no problems what so ever". This article is a great reminder that I need to call my grandmother more often :)

khedoros 10y ago
My grandfather was instrumental in developing several key products and technologies at IBM in the 60s and 70s. I'd been meaning to call him, and he suddenly died last Saturday. You never know when your opportunity to talk to your grandmother will disappear.
xxr 10y ago
Please do. My grandmother (my last living grandparent for over 20 years) passed away in January, and I am indeed happy that I took the opportunity to learn things from her about her life over the years.
clifanatic 10y ago
Was her name Grace Hopper?
- egjerlow 10y ago
  She wasn't a German expatriate, as far as I can tell!
- agentgt 10y ago
  No it was not. I wish I could provide an official link of her work but I can't seem to google anything. She isn't famous by any means and is exceedingly humble (hence the difficulty on finding details indirectly). Interestingly though she absolutely loves all things sci-fi. She records almost everything the SyFy channel produces and loves Babylon 5, Dr. Who, etc... She is exceedingly good at board games. Even ones she has never played before she often wins. I remember brining Chinese checkers once to her with my wife. She had never played before but she absolutely trashed my wife and me in multiple games. She grew up in Germany and I have often wondered if that had any affect on her non-traditional-gender hobbies and likes. Or maybe it is just her personality (as I love board games and SciFi as well).

by agentgt 10y ago

khedoros 10y ago

My grandfather was instrumental in developing several key products and technologies at IBM in the 60s and 70s. I'd been meaning to call him, and he suddenly died last Saturday. You never know when your opportunity to talk to your grandmother will disappear.

xxr 10y ago

Please do. My grandmother (my last living grandparent for over 20 years) passed away in January, and I am indeed happy that I took the opportunity to learn things from her about her life over the years.

clifanatic 10y ago

Was her name Grace Hopper?

egjerlow 10y ago
She wasn't a German expatriate, as far as I can tell!
agentgt 10y ago
No it was not. I wish I could provide an official link of her work but I can't seem to google anything. She isn't famous by any means and is exceedingly humble (hence the difficulty on finding details indirectly). Interestingly though she absolutely loves all things sci-fi. She records almost everything the SyFy channel produces and loves Babylon 5, Dr. Who, etc... She is exceedingly good at board games. Even ones she has never played before she often wins. I remember brining Chinese checkers once to her with my wife. She had never played before but she absolutely trashed my wife and me in multiple games. She grew up in Germany and I have often wondered if that had any affect on her non-traditional-gender hobbies and likes. Or maybe it is just her personality (as I love board games and SciFi as well).