Adele Mildred Koss, known as Milly Koss, (born 11 July 1928, died 11 September 2012) was an American pioneering

computer programmer A programmer, computer programmer or coder is an author of computer source code someone with skill in computer programming. The professional titles ''software developer'' and ''software engineer'' are used for jobs that require a progr ...

. The Association for Women in Computing awarded her an Ada Lovelace Award in 2000. Milly Koss at UNIVAC

She attended

Philadelphia High School for Girls Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the sixth-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 1,603,797 in the 2020 census. The city is the urb ...

and graduated in Mathematics from

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...

in 1950. Following her first job interview with an insurance company, Koss, who was engaged at the time, was rejected for the reason that married women would have children and leave. She worked at

Eckert–Mauchly Computer Corporation The Eckert–Mauchly Computer Corporation (EMCC) (March 1946 – 1950) was a computer company founded by J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly. It was incorporated on December 22, 1947. After building the ENIAC at the University of Penns ...

(EMCC) under

Grace Hopper Grace Brewster Hopper (; December 9, 1906 – January 1, 1992) was an American computer scientist, mathematician, and United States Navy rear admiral. She was a pioneer of computer programming. Hopper was the first to devise the theory of mach ...

, programming the

UNIVAC I The UNIVAC I (Universal Automatic Computer I) was the first general-purpose electronic digital computer design for business application produced in the United States. It was designed principally by J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly, the invento ...

. Her first big project was the development of what has become known as the 'Editing Generator', a sophisticated program to automatically format data for printing. Being able to create margins, headings and page numbers on the fly, Koss was the first programmer to attempt

word processing A word processor (WP) is a device or computer program that provides for input, editing, formatting, and output of text, often with some additional features. Word processor (electronic device), Early word processors were stand-alone devices dedicate ...

. During her time at EMCC she also wrote some of the first sorting programs, and with Hopper wrote the first compiler. After working for several other companies including Burroughs, Remington Rand, Philco and CDC, Koss moved to

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

where she stayed for 27 years until she retired in 1994, having been Associate Director of the Office for Information Technology and the University's Information Security Officer. Her colleague

Jean Bartik Jean Bartik ( Betty Jean Jennings; December 27, 1924 – March 23, 2011) was an American computer programmer who was one of the original six programmers of the ENIAC computer. Bartik studied mathematics in school then began work at the Unive ...

recalled that Koss had become pregnant and was expected to leave her post, but she approached Hopper with the idea of what is now known as telecommuting, and Hopper encouraged her to stay on and to work from home as necessary. She negotiated similar arrangements in several subsequent posts. In 1997 she was awarded a Pioneer Award, one of seven women to be so honoured, at the

Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing The Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing (GHC) is a series of conferences designed to bring the research and career interests of women in computing to the forefront. It is the world's largest gathering of women and non-binary technologi ...

. Koss died on 11 September 2012, survived by three children and three grandchildren. Her husband Norman A. Koss had pre-deceased her: they had been married for 60 years.

References

External links

* 2012 deaths University of Pennsylvania alumni Harvard University staff Philadelphia High School for Girls alumni American women computer scientists American computer scientists 1928 births 21st-century American women {{compu-bio-stub