Interviewith grace Murray Hopper interviewers: Beth Luebert, Henny Tropp date of interview: 5 July 1972 place of interview: nm

Computer Oral History Collection, 1969-1973, 1977 

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Grace Murray Hopper Interview, July 5, 1972, Archives Center, National Museum of American History 

 

 

That's right. 

TROPP: 

And that, so far, seems to be the first direct connection I can find between Von Neumann 

and… 

HOPPER: 

Von Neumann was there quite often. All those problems were classified. The only way 

you can find them is to find out whether they have been declassified. 

TROPP: 

Well this one particular problem was declassified and I have seen it. 

HOPPER: 

I think the big one that Block ran, I think is still classified. I don't know. 

TROPP: 

That's the one, I think, on (                     ?), the thermonuclear problem. Right, that's still 

classified. 

HOPPER: 

Yes, Bloch ran that one. 

TROPP: 

Yes. Do you remember Von Neumann being around before 1944? 

HOPPER: 

I didn't get there until 1944, I got there July 1st, 1944. 

TROPP: 

So Von Neumann had already been there. I think he showed up in about February of… 

HOPPER: 

I don't know. He was there when I was there. 

For additional information, contact the Archives Center at 202.633.3270 or [e-mail]

 

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Computer Oral History Collection, 1969-1973, 1977 

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Grace Murray Hopper Interview, July 5, 1972, Archives Center, National Museum of American History 

 

 

TROPP: 

Well that particular classified problem I think is a February or March problem of the 

same year. 

HOPPER: 

He was around when I came. 

TROPP: 

Apparently he was bothered by the slowness of the Mark I in terms of the crudity of the 

approximations it was giving him. 

HOPPER: 

I used to rush over to the typewriter and copy down some numbers and go out to the back 

room to a blackboard and write them all over and he'd wait (at the typewriter for 

something else?). 

They were in an awful hurry. The pressure was terrific on all these problems. Because 

you see, we hadn't had rockets, we were just beginning to have rockets. We had no firing 

tables for them. We had new torpedoes. Nobody knew what they were going to do. All 

these things had to be computed. 

For instance, (Brendle?) did one, no I, (Brendle?) did that one on the (D        ?) towed 

behind a ship for the minesweeping techniques. They were right on our backs. There was 

one special phone. The Commander's desk was here and the Secretary's desk was here, 

and there was a table in between which had a ship's clock on it. 

Right next to it was a telephone which was connected directly to the Bureau of Ordnance 

in Washington, it was a direct line to Washington. Well, we used to shake every time that 

darn thing rang. When are you going to have the numbers ready? The pressure was, it 

was normal wartime pressure which is totally impossible to convey today…(voice fades 

out). 

TROPP: 

Well that, the twenty four hour kind of thing that you talk about seems to have been 

common with all the wartime projects. 

HOPPER: 

It was. 

For additional information, contact the Archives Center at 202.633.3270 or [e-mail]

 

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Computer Oral History Collection, 1969-1973, 1977 

16

 

Grace Murray Hopper Interview, July 5, 1972, Archives Center, National Museum of American History 

 

 

TROPP: 

The atmosphere varies from place to place and the feeling for the pressure seems to vary 

but the … 

HOPPER: 

And you didn't go out in the evening and drink beer and compare notes on problems. You 

were dead tired and you went home and you went to bed because you were going to be 

there at the crack of dawn the next morning. 

TROPP: 

I think one of the things that… 

HOPPER: 

There was no social life. 

TROPP: 

…Bob Campbell mentioned was that Aiken would think nothing of calling him up at say, 

two o'clock in the morning … 

HOPPER: 

No. He would call any of us up any time. 

TROPP: 

… and, you know, you get down to solve something or get something working. 

HOPPER: 

You were in the Navy. You were on duty twenty four hours a day. You were lucky if you 

went home to sleep. 

TROPP: 

Then if you didn't show up on time the next morning, you got hell from Aiken. 

(LAUGHTER). 

HOPPER: 

You were in the Navy. This wasn't just Aiken, this was the Navy. 

For additional information, contact the Archives Center at 202.633.3270 or [e-mail]

 

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Computer Oral History Collection, 1969-1973, 1977 

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Grace Murray Hopper Interview, July 5, 1972, Archives Center, National Museum of American History 

 

 

TROPP: 

When did Aiken, one of the questions Beth asked me was when Aiken formally became 

connected with (the Navy       ?). 

HOPPER: 

He had been reserve as an engineer. He had been in the reserve before that. 

TROPP: 

This was before he even came back to Harvard as a graduate student? 

HOPPER: 

Oh yes. He'd been a reserve. That's why the computer went to (         ?). He was in the 

Naval Reserve. 

TROPP: 

Beth, I'm again stealing your question. 

HOPPER: 

He was in before World War II, before it began. You might, I don't know how much you 

can get of his record from the Navy Department. You might (             ?) his commission, 

but you should be able to get a biography from the Navy Department, the Bureau of 

Naval Personnel. 

LUEBERT: 

Could we get something the same on you, from the files? 

HOPPER: 

You mean the Navy files? 

LUEBBERT: 

Yes. 

HOPPER: 

I can give you copies of my fitness reports and my orders. 

For additional information, contact the Archives Center at 202.633.3270 or [e-mail]

 

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