Grace Murray Hopper

today would be Grace Hopper's birthday if she hadn't died (in 1992, born 1906). in computer class in 8th grade my friends and i liked to call her grass hopper in order that we might remember something close to her name for tests. but really i have always admired her. she was a pioneer in programming in many ways.
according to the biography here

Perhaps her best-known contribution to computing was the invention of the compiler, the intermediate program that translates English language instructions into the language of the target computer. She did this, she said, because she was lazy and hoped that "the programmer may return to being a mathematician."

so she's who we have to blame for lazy programmers =).
but seriously she is worth reading about. besides the above short biography below are another couple of links of interest.
gracehopper.org biography
article at wikipedia (also includes a picture of a moth that was in a computer, after removal it was taped into a lab notebook. just awesome record keeping if you ask me.)