Software pioneer and ENIAC programmer Jean Bartik dies at 86

The New York Times has published an obituary for Jean Jennings Bartik, "one of the first computer programmers and a pioneering forerunner in a technology that came to be known as software." She died on March 23 at a nursing home in Poughkeepsie, NY, at age 86. She was the last surviving member of the group of women who programmed the Eniac, or Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer, regarded as the first all-electronic digital computer. (via Jim Roberts)

Photo, via Wikipedia: "Two women operating the ENIAC's main control panel while the machine was still located at the Moore School. 'U.S. Army Photo' from the archives of the ARL Technical Library. Left: Betty Jennings (Mrs. Bartik) Right: Frances Bilas (Mrs. Spence)

• [Tim Pozar]

  Sorry to hear of her passing.

  I was in attendance of a meeting at the Computer History Museum when she was inducted in as a Fellow < http://www.computerhistory.org/fellowawards/hall/bios/Jean,Bartik/>. I am very glad she was recognized before her death as a critical part of that project with the group of programmers that were mainly women.

• [Laserbeams]

  I had the privelige of meeting Ms. Bartik once, at a talk she gave about the history of computing technology. She was an intelligent and fascinating woman, with an interesting story to tell. May she and the other early programmers not be forgotten!

• [Tim Bartik]

  Thank you for the post and the comments on my Mom’s death.

  I should mention that in addition to the Top Secret Rosies movie, which is mainly focused on the women computers of WWII, there is a documentary being worked on that focuses on the six ENIAC programmers, all of whom were women. Kathy Kleiman has been working on this for some years. http://www.eniacprogrammers.org

  My Mom also had written her memoirs, which I am helping to edit, and which I hope will be available sometime this year. There are some interesting stories there about the ENIAC, and about issues of sexism in the computer industry.

• [Anonymous]

  I thought I was a pioneer in personal computing back in the day. Jackie and I (Barb) opened a computer store in 1982. We were 2 college graduates. Does anyone remember the Osborne, Kaypro, CPM and pip, DOS, IBM compatibles, NEC, Epson, Apple 2c, 2e, the Lisa – precursor the first MAC? My dad said he worked on the ENIAC and the ORDVAC and went on to work for UNIVAC, Dr. Werner Leutert. He didn’t think personal computers had any practical use in the home :)

• [Anonymous]

  My condoleances, Mr. Bartik

  I have never met your mother, but learned about her in an introduction to computers class. She and her team mates are the reason I continued in that field, which was very male dominated in the mid ’80s.

  May she continue to inspire other young women.

• [Amelia_G]

  I very much enjoyed hearing Jean Bartik tell her story in “Top Secret Rosies”! Thank you, Jean; and thank you BoingBoing for bringing that movie to my attention.

• [Anonymous]

  There is a great documentary about these extraordinary women called “Top Secret Rosies”. Netflix has it on instant watch.

• [Anonymous]

  I chatted with her on email a few times regarding early computer gaming — she had played around with the idea of programming the ENIAC to play Gin Rummy, and that led her to be introduced to Claude Shannon one day. I was just thinking about her yesterday or today, wondering if I would be hearing about this soon — Sandy Douglas (who created the first tic-tac-toe game on the EDSAC) passed in April 2010 and I was lucky enough to talk to some close to him before then. The pioners of the computer age are passing on, and it’s a shame there isn’t more being done to document their experiences before it’s too late. A few projects have been done (Jean was part of a documentary on the history of women in computing), but I had to create the wikipedia article on Shannon as there was nothing there but his name in the OXO article.

  There’s still a few of them left here and there — not much time.