Programmers Betty Jean Jennings (left) and Fran Bilas (right) operate the ENIAC's main control panel.

Jean Bartik (born December 27, 1924) was one of the original programmers for the ENIAC computer.

She was born Betty Jean Jennings¹ in Gentry County, Missouri in 1924 and attended Northwest Missouri State Teachers College, majoring in mathematics. In 1945, she was hired by the University of Pennsylvania to work for Army Ordnance at Aberdeen Proving Ground. When the ENIAC computer was developed for the purpose of calculating ballistics trajectories, she was selected to be one of its first programmers. Bartik later became part of a group charged with converting the ENIAC into a stored program computer; in the original implementation, ENIAC was programmed by setting dials and changing cable connections. She went on to work on the BINAC and UNIVAC I computers.

Jean became an editor for Auerbach Publishers, an early publisher of information on high technology. She left Auerbach to join Data Decisions (a Ziff Davis Company) in 1981 where she was a Senior Editor for Communications Services.

Jean Jennings Bartik was a friend for over 60 years with Kathleen Antonelli, John Mauchly's widow. John Mauchly was co-inventor of the ENIAC. John Mauchly walked Jean down the aisle when she married and it was at Jean's wedding reception that John had the courage to approach Kay about dating. Kay was also one of the six original women programmers of the ENIAC. Jean Jennings Bartik has a museum in her name at Northwest Missouri State University in Maryville, Missouri. The museum boasts rare one-of-a-kind ENIAC, BINAC and UNIVAC exhibits, including an original salesman pot-metal model of the UNIVAC I.

In addition to a BS in mathematics from Northwest Missouri State Teachers College, Jean holds an MS in English from the University of Pennsylvania and an Honorary Dr of Science from Northwest Missouri State University. In 1997 she was inducted into the Women in Technology International Hall of Fame, along with the other original ENIAC programmers. In 2008 she was one of three Fellow Award honorees of the Computer History Museum along with Bob Metcalfe and Linus Torvalds.

References

External links

• UNIVAC conference, Charles Babbage Institute, University of Minnesota. 171-page transcript of oral history with computer pioneers, including Jean Bartik, involved with the Univac computer, held on 17-18 May 1990. The meeting involved 25 engineers, programmers, marketing representatives, and salesmen who were involved with the UNIVAC, as well as representatives from users such as General Electric, Arthur Andersen, and the U.S. Census.
• Female Frontiers (NASA)
• WITI Hall of Fame
• Jean JENNINGS Bartik Computing Museum at NWMSU