Last Thursday, April 10, amidst the grey skies and rain, members of the Vassar community at large gathered in Vassar’s Institute for the Liberal Arts to celebrate 100 years since the 1925 arrival of Grace Hopper, Class of 1928, to the College. The event featured a fireside chat and panel with alumnae/i and drew a crowd of over 100 students, fellow alumnae/i, faculty and community members. Recognized as the mother of modern computing, Hopper taught mathematics at her alma mater, and, upon retirement from teaching, she embarked on a 22-year stint in the U.S. Navy.
The evening began with a speech by President of the College Elizabeth Bradley, who was introduced by Chair of the Computer Science Department Marc Smith. She began by thanking Smith before lauding Hopper and her achievements. Bradley also acknowledged the physical space and the audience’s ability to freely celebrate and explore the liberal arts. She concluded, “I just want to make that moment precious, because now we know how important that is in our world.”
Reflecting on her first few times meeting the organizer of the event—Alison Albeck Lindland ’00—Bradley recalled her drive to gain recognition of the Hopper name. Recently, leading technology company NVIDIA named their superchip “Hopper,” a nationally-recognized move which served as a partial catalyst for this event, to raise awareness of Hopper and her contributions.
In a written correspondence with The Miscellany News, Lindland reflected on planning the event: “We wanted the event to both honor Hopper and highlight how her liberal arts values continue to thrive in the tech industry through our alumni—both those who knew her directly and those who were influenced by her.”
Following Bradley’s speech, Smith offered remarks about his experience with visiting Winifred “Tim” Asprey ’38, when he arrived to begin teaching at Vassar in 2006. Upon learning that Asprey lived in the house Hopper’s husband built during her tenure, Smith said, “It was then I realized I was sitting in computer science-hallowed ground.” Smith shared that Asprey was fond of her friend, and would be happy to see the turnout for the day’s event in honor of Hopper. He then introduced Kurt Beyer, continuing lecturer at the University of California, Berkeley’s Haas Business School and Hopper’s biographer.
Beyer began with a recap of Hopper’s accomplishments, including her development of subroutines and identification of the first computer bug. As he delved into her early notions of software, he began to connect the dots in her scientific background. Highlighting his own background as a historian of science and technology, he wondered why Hopper’s past would lead her to break the tradition of single-use technology. His investigation led him back to her roots as a Vassar professor.
According to Beyer, Hopper had an innate ability to distill any concept into math. During her time as a professor, she audited classes in disciplines like art history and architecture, which she incorporated into the mathematics curriculum she taught. These cross sectional ways of thinking led her to develop the first compiler, which led to theories of programming languages, and eventually source code, which she called pseudocode at the time. Explaining Hopper’s reasoning behind her exploration of these high-level concepts, Beyer remarked, “As she says, you let the humans write in human, and you let the computer figure things out for itself.”
Following Beyer’s remarks, Lindland interviewed Naomi Seligman ’55, who is one of Hopper’s mentees, distinguished in the fields of computing and information technology. This visit was the first time the latter has returned to Vassar since her graduation. When Lindland asked about her day on campus, Seligmann remarked, “The library is exactly as it was, and I loved it. I always loved libraries because it got me away from a house full of brothers.” Her comment garnered laughs from the audience.
Seligman met Hopper while speaking at a panel the latter was moderating. Hopper immediately identified her as a Vassar girl owing to their matching hairstyles. Starting then, Hopper mentored Seligman through significant career shifts, particularly when she and her husband were considering entrepreneurship. From meetings to shopping at Saks Fifth Avenue, Hopper was always in full regalia, which Seligman said highlighted her theatrical tendency.
Seligman also commented on Hopper’s long stint in the Navy, saying, “She loved the military. She said she didn’t have to decide what to wear. She didn’t have to decide what to serve for dinner. She didn’t have to do any of the routine things. She just had a focus on what she cared about. And she was driven to do whatever she did magnificently well.”
Lindland expressed her enjoyment of the interview with Seligman, writing, “For me, moderating the fireside chat with Naomi was an absolute highlight. Her humor, candor and insightful perspective on Hopper were truly invaluable.”
Similarly, Sashinka Poor ’24 and Abigail Kotar ’24, who returned to campus for the event, also highlighted the interview as their favorite part of the night. Poor commented, “I would say I think my favorite part of the event was getting to hear Naomi talk because she’s a very impressive woman and I think she had a really good perspective on what Grace Hopper’s perspective on the world was and I loved hearing little anecdotes stories about her interactions with Grace Hopper. It made her feel like a real person.” Kotar said, “I feel like I only know Grace Hopper from an aspirational level, and it was cool to hear about someone who knew her firsthand, so that was probably my favorite part.”
Poor also reflected that she wishes the event could have been longer. She continued, “There’s a lot more that can be done to connect computer science alumni together and things like that and so I think it was just trying to do a lot of things in a short space and there’s definitely potential for it to be a bigger event.”
Founder of Vassar’s Computer Science Department and Professor Emerita Nancy Ide headed a panel featuring accomplished alumnae/i Peter Leonard ’97, Reena Mehta ’01 and Matt Foster ’14. Before introducing her panelists, Ide recounted the first and only time she met Hopper. “Grace had refused to come to Vassar for several years after 1969 because Vassar admitted men,” she began, followed by laughter from the audience. Ide continued, “She reluctantly came one time and I did get to sit next to her at lunch, so that’s my one memory of Grace Hopper.”
Lindland wrote, “At the eve of the first computing era, Hopper leveraged her liberal arts foundation demonstrating critical thinking, intellectual curiosity, communication and creativity to “see around corners” (as Naomi said) and make significant breakthroughs that we still benefit from today.” She furthered, “On the cusp of the AI revolution, Hopper stands as a powerful reminder that a liberal arts education is more essential than ever—preparing Vassar graduates to thrive in an AI-enabled economy.”