Ann Hardy facts for kids

Ann Hardy (born April 20, 1933) was an American computer programmer and businesswoman. She is famous for her important work on computer systems that allowed many people to use a computer at the same time. This was called "time-sharing." She did this pioneering work while at a company called Tymshare, starting in 1966.

Ann Hardy: A Computer Pioneer

Early Life and School

Ann Hardy was born in Chicago, Illinois. Her father ran a small advertising agency. Her mother, Ruth H. Ewing, was a high school math teacher and also managed their home. Ann was the oldest of five children in a traditional Methodist family. She grew up in Evanston, Illinois.

In 1951, Ann graduated from Evanston Township High School. In 1955, she earned a degree in physical education from Pomona College. She chose this subject because it was the only way she could take math and science classes. She had wanted to study chemistry, but the head of the chemistry department did not want women in the lab.

After college, she took chemistry classes at Columbia University. However, she soon realized that a career in physical therapy was not for her. A friend who worked for IBM suggested she try a test for programmers.

Starting a Career in Computers

In 1956, Ann Hardy began her career in computer programming. She took IBM's Programmer Aptitude Test, which helped show if someone was good at computer logic. Her first job title was "System Service Girl," which is like a system engineer today.

Ann then became a programmer and worked in IBM Research. This was first in Poughkeepsie and then in Ossining, New York. She worked at IBM for five years.

Her work on the STRETCH supercomputer project led to a new job offer. In 1962, she moved to the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. From 1963 to 1966, Ann was part of a team of five people. They worked on the Fortran compiler for the Livermore STRETCH computer. A compiler is a program that translates computer code into instructions the computer can understand.

Building New Computer Systems

In February 1966, Ann's husband got a job at IBM in the Bay Area. Ann then found a job at Tymshare, a new company focused on time-sharing. Tymshare was located in Los Altos, California. She worked there from 1966 to 1985.

Ann Hardy worked on some of the very first time-sharing systems and computer networks. These systems were used by many different companies and government groups. In 1968, she, along with her husband Norm Hardy and LaRoy Tymes, made a breakthrough. They were the first to use smaller computers, called minicomputers, to connect to larger, powerful mainframe computers.

Ann eventually became a vice-president at Tymshare. She was the first woman to hold this high position. Ann was the only person who wrote the computer code for Tymshare's time-sharing product. However, many of her male co-workers thought her husband had written it. It was only when she was in the hospital having her first child that they realized her importance. Her co-workers faced problems they could not fix without her. This showed them that she was truly the expert on the system she had created.

Later Career and Legacy

In 1984, Tymshare was bought by another company, McDonnell Douglas. After this, Ann left to start her own company called KeyLogic. KeyLogic sold the time-sharing computer hardware and software that had been developed at Tymshare. They did this through a special agreement. However, the computer market changed, and KeyLogic had to close in the early 1990s.

Later, Ann co-founded another company called Agorics. This company focused on creating online marketplaces, which are websites where people can buy and sell things.

Ann Hardy's experiences show what it was like for women working in computers in the mid to late 20th century. Even though women like Ann had great technical skills and proved their value, they were often not given enough credit or paid fairly as the computer field grew more important. Historians have shown that women programmers were often not recognized for their work. This led to a mistaken idea that men did most of the important work in computing.

Ann Hardy retired in 2004. She also helped lead a special interest group for the software industry at the Computer History Museum.

Personal Life

Ann Hardy married Norman Hardy, who also worked at IBM and Tymshare. They later divorced. Ann had two daughters. One was born in 1968 and the other in 1970. One of her daughters became an environmentalist, working to protect nature. Her other daughter became a costume designer, creating clothes for plays and movies.

See Also

• History of women in computing
• Time-sharing