Betty Jean Jennings Bartik
Personal Information
Born: 1924
Died: 2011
Country of Birth: USA
Nationality: USA
Ethnicity: White
Education
Northwest Missouri State University BS Mathematics 1945; University of Pennsylvania MS English 1967
Professional Life
Field of Study: Computer Science
Institution/Corporation: Remington Rand; Auerbach Publishing; US Army Aberdeen Proving Grounds
Degrees & Memberships: Honorary Degree Northwest Missouri State University (2002); Member: Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
Awards & Achievements
Awards: 2008 IEEComputer Society Awards Computer Pioneer Award; 1997 Women in Technology International (WITI) Hall of Fame; 2008 Fellow Computer History Museum;2009 Korenman Award, Multinational Center for Development of Women in Tech
Achievements: 1 of the 6 Women of ENIAC; originally manually computed ballistic trajectories before using ENIAC to do so, reducing the computation time from 3-4 days to less than 1 minute; worked at Mauchly-Eckert after WWII, company later sold to Remington Rand; was asked to leave Remington Rand because they had a policy against husband & wife working in the same division; then did freelance programming for her husband & Mauchly; left computing in 1954 to raise a family & didn't return until 1967; after her 1968 divorce worked for 8 years at Auerbach Corporation writing & editing technical reports on minicomputers
1 of the 6 Women who worked on ENIAC. The day before it debuted, the world’s first general-purpose computer failed to work & it was up to seven women to stay late and make the beast, dubbed ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer) operational
retired from the computer industry in 1986 & spent the next 25 years as a real estate agent
content-management framework Drupal's default theme, Bartik, is named in her honor
was the 6th of 7 children, father was a teacher & farmer
as a child would ride on horseback to her grandmother's daily, grandmother bought a newspaper daily for her to read & was a role model for her
began her education in a 1-room schoolhouse & gained recognition for her softball pitching skills; once pitched a no-hit, no-run game; was paid $2 per game to pitch during summers
moved in with her sister for the freshman year of high school because there was no high school in her town, after that year moved back home (30 miles) & was allowed to drive the 2 miles to the bus to get to school when she was 14
graduated high school at 16 & was salutatorian
originally intended to major in journalism but switched major to math because she hated her advisor
the ENIAC Women were known as the "Sensational six"
had no manual for how to run the ENIAC & weren't allowed to be in the same room with it until their security checks were completed; learned how to program it by studying construction diagrams & interviewing the engineers who built it then used the information gathered to teach themselves the skills they needed to run it
The congratulations for the success of ENIAC were given to the engineers, John Mauchly & John Eckert; the women didn't receive recognition for their roles until 1985
several documentaries were later made to give credit for their work
her autobiography "Pioneer Programmer: Jean Jennings Bartik & the Computer That Changed the World" was published posthumously in 2013
a computing museum in Maryville, Missouri is dedicated to the history of computing & her career
grew up in a 4-room house & worked the fields of the family farm
was the only math major in her college graduating class; 2 courses were arranged as tutorials & taught by retired teachers so she could graduate
was a devoted bridge palyer