Bessie Blount Griffin (1914-2009)
Bessie Blount Griffin was born in the community of Hickory, in Princess Anne County (later the city of Chesapeake), where she attended a one-room segregated school. After being punished for writing with her left hand, she taught herself to write by holding a pencil in her teeth and feet, techniques she later taught to servicemen who had suffered amputations. Her father died as a result of injuries suffered during World War I and she moved with her mother to New Jersey during the 1920s. She studied at Union County Junior College and later at the Panzer College of Physical Education and Hygiene and became a registered physical therapist.
Ada Lovelace (1815-1852)
Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace was an English mathematician and writer known for her work on Charles Babbage’s Analytical Engine, a proposed general purpose computing machine. She was the first to understand the full potential of Babbage’s design – the inventor had originally conceived the Analytical Engine as an instrument for performing calculations, but Lovelace realized that it could also be used to manipulate symbols and compose music. In the 1840s, Lovelace wrote an algorithm for the Analytical Engine to compute Bernoulli numbers, which became the world’s first published computer algorithm. For this reason, she is considered by many to be the first ever computer programmer. Ada Lovelace Day, a global celebration of the achievements of women in STEM fields, takes place every year on the second Tuesday of October.