Great Women

I named my blog “My Thoughts” with the intention of writing about what I was thinking about at a given point in time. Today I was thinking about the most outstanding people I have ever met. It did not take me long to decide that the two most outstanding people I have ever met were Lillian Gilbreth and Grace Hopper. Those names may not sound familiar, but I am sure most people have heard of them at one time or another. In 1967 I was a young Air Force lieutenant. I was sent to the Second International Conference of Women Engineers and Scientists at Cambridge University in England. Both Lillian Gilbreth and Grace Hopper were attendees at this conference. At the time I did not fully appreciate the magnitude of their accomplishments. As far as I was concerned, they were just two nice old ladies.

Lillian Gilbreth was 89 years old when I met her. She was a pioneer in the field of time and motion studies. She published work that recognized the relationship of efficiency to the work environment. She and her husband had twelve children. The story of her life was told in the book Cheaper by the Dozen which was also made into a movie. Some years later I had another encounter with Lillian Gilbreth when I was studying for my MBA degree. I was the only woman in a management seminar. Each student was assigned a topic on important developments in management theory. The professor thought it was appropriate to assign Lillian Gilbreth to me. At that time I finally understood what a remarkable woman she was.

In 1967 Grace Hopper was a commander in the U.S. Naval Reserve. She was over 60 but still on active duty. In 1967 a female could not hold a rank higher than O-5 (commander for the Navy or lieutenant colonel for the other branches). When this restriction was removed, Grace Hopper became the Navy’s first female rear admiral, but this is not what made Grace Hopper great. Grace Hopper was the “Grandmother of the Computer Age”. She joined the Navy during World War II. She developed computer languages that allowed people to work with computers and enabled the flow of information. Her efforts made a major contribution to the Allied victory in World War II.

There were four women including myself at the conference who were members of the U.S. military. Three of us were from the Air Force and Cmdr. Hopper from the Navy. I was the most junior officer. We were in Cambridge over the Fourth of July. One of the officers decided that it would be appropriate for us to visit the American Military Cemetery which is just outside Cambridge. It is very impressive. There is a wall that lists the names of military members who were lost at sea or not recovered for burial. I noticed Cmdr. Hopper studying the names on the wall, and she broke down in tears. I thought she was just overcome with emotion, but one of the other officers explained to me that she had been married for a very short time to a naval officer, and he was lost at sea. This is something that I have never seen or heard in any of the articles or television shows that have featured Grace Hopper.

These are links to more information on Grace Hopper and Lillian Gibreth .