Dorothy Josephine Del Bourgo Kellogg Stein (March 31, 1931 – March 16, 2019) was an early computer programmer, psychologist, author and social activist. Her activities landed her on the cusp of or ahead of her time. She is best known for researching and writing the book ''Ada'', which argued that
Ada Lovelace
Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace (''née'' Byron; 10 December 1815 – 27 November 1852) was an English mathematician and writer, chiefly known for her work on Charles Babbage's proposed mechanical general-purpose computer, the A ...
was not the first computer programmer and did not have the mathematical ability to assist
Charles Babbage
Charles Babbage (; 26 December 1791 – 18 October 1871) was an English polymath. A mathematician, philosopher, inventor and mechanical engineer, Babbage originated the concept of a digital programmable computer.
Babbage is considered ...
as much as was believed.
Early life
She was born Dorothy Josephine del Bourgo in Newark, New Jersey. She was the first of two daughters of Jacob Del Bourgo, a civil engineer and Charlotte Del Bourgo (née Styler). Jacob was a
Sephardic Jew
Sephardic (or Sephardi) Jews (, ; lad, Djudíos Sefardíes), also ''Sepharadim'' , Modern Hebrew: ''Sfaradim'', Tiberian: Səp̄āraddîm, also , ''Ye'hude Sepharad'', lit. "The Jews of Spain", es, Judíos sefardíes (or ), pt, Judeus sefar ...
born to a family of pearl traders, and Charlotte was of
Ashkenazi
Ashkenazi Jews ( ; he, יְהוּדֵי אַשְׁכְּנַז, translit=Yehudei Ashkenaz, ; yi, אַשכּנזישע ייִדן, Ashkenazishe Yidn), also known as Ashkenazic Jews or ''Ashkenazim'',, Ashkenazi Hebrew pronunciation: , singu ...
descent, fleeing Eastern Europe as a youth. The two sisters were raised as culturally Jewish but not particularly devout, and Dorothy had fond memories of bacon as a special treat during the
Great Depression
The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
.
Jacob Del Bourgo was unable to find work in the United States for some time, and so moved the family to Venezuela. In the aftermath of World War II, engineers became more in demand and employment discrimination against Jews declined, allowing the family to settle in New York. Stein graduated high school early and attended
Cornell University
Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...
, earning her degree in Physics in 1951. Work on her second degree, involving experiments with a cloud chamber, was interrupted by meeting and eventually marrying Paul Kellogg, then completing his PhD in physics at Cornell.
After a year in Copenhagen at the high energy physics institute led by
Niels Bohr
Niels Henrik David Bohr (; 7 October 1885 – 18 November 1962) was a Danish physicist who made foundational contributions to understanding atomic structure and quantum theory, for which he received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1922. B ...
, the couple returned to America, where in 1955 Stein worked on one of the first computers, calculating missile trajectories, while her husband worked in nuclear physics and the new field of solar plasma. In 1956, they moved to Minnesota, where Paul became a professor in the physics department of the
University of Minnesota
The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...
. There Dorothy gave birth to their two sons, Kenneth in 1956 and David in 1959.
Dorothy and Paul divorced in 1964, and two years later Dorothy married
Burton Stein
Burton Stein (1926 – April 26, 1996) was an American historian, whose area of specialization was India.
Life and career
Stein was born and grew up in Chicago, Illinois and served in the Second World War, before commencing tertiary study at the n ...
, a professor of Indian history. In 1968 Dorothy finished a PhD in child psychology that established, using
dichotic listening
Dichotic listening is a psychological test commonly used to investigate selective attention and the lateralization of brain function within the auditory system. It is used within the fields of cognitive psychology and neuroscience.
In a standar ...
techniques, that syllables are not
phonemes
In phonology and linguistics, a phoneme () is a unit of sound that can distinguish one word from another in a particular language.
For example, in most dialects of English, with the notable exception of the West Midlands and the north-west o ...
, but are psychologically real (the precise implications of this remain indistinct).
Career
The Steins moved to Hawaii, where Burt became a Professor at the
University of Hawaii
A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, th ...
. During the rise of the feminist movement, Stein helped to establish a Women’s studies department there with Joan Abramson and Doris Ladd. When Burt retired from teaching in 1980, they moved to London, where Burt wrote histories of India.
Stein became interested in the life of Ada, Countess of Lovelace, the only legitimate child of
Lord Byron
George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron (22 January 1788 – 19 April 1824), known simply as Lord Byron, was an English romantic poet and Peerage of the United Kingdom, peer. He was one of the leading figures of the Romantic movement, and h ...
, who at the time was believed to have written the very first computer programs (the US Defense Department, which Stein used to work for, had just named the
ADA programming language
Ada is a structured, statically typed, imperative, and object-oriented high-level programming language, extended from Pascal and other languages. It has built-in language support for '' design by contract'' (DbC), extremely strong typing, explic ...
after her). Through assiduous work at the
Bodleian library
The Bodleian Library () is the main research library of the University of Oxford, and is one of the oldest libraries in Europe. It derives its name from its founder, Sir Thomas Bodley. With over 13 million printed items, it is the second- ...
and elsewhere, Stein began to realize that Ada was a more Byronic heroine; she gambled, took drugs, probably had extra-marital liaisons, and certainly had only a feeble grasp of the mathematics behind the computer. In a set of papers and her book ''Ada, A life and a Legacy'' which is still highly controversial. Stein speculated that much of her computer work was really ghost-written by Charles Babbage.
Burton Stein died in 1996, but by that time, Stein had become fond of London, and continued to live in their flat. Concerned about population growth, she wrote another book, ''People Who Count'', which argued that women would choose to have fewer children if they were given the freedom to use family planning. In later years she devoted herself to gardening, bookbinding, making clothes, and working for
Oxfam
Oxfam is a British-founded confederation of 21 independent charitable organizations focusing on the alleviation of global poverty, founded in 1942 and led by Oxfam International.
History
Founded at 17 Broad Street, Oxford, as the Oxford Co ...
.
Dr. Stein began to suffer memory loss, and eventually moved into Nightingale’s in Clapham. Her decline became rapid in early 2019 and she died on March 16.
Works
* 1985:
* 1995:
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stein, Dorothy
1931 births
2019 deaths
American computer scientists
American women psychologists
20th-century American psychologists
Writers from Newark, New Jersey
Jewish American scientists
Cornell University alumni
University of Hawaiʻi faculty
Writers from London
American expatriates in England
20th-century American women writers
American women academics
21st-century American Jews
21st-century American women