ARLINGTON, Va.— In front of my apartment building is Grace Murray Hopper Park, a pleasant county park that is great for a little recreation and a buffer between the rest of Pentagon City.

Back in late February, after six years of living behind the park in Riverhouse, I noticed above rock was not actually a rock. We were building a snowman and threw a snowball at the rock. I was surprised to hear a hollow thud. I investigated and sure enough, the “rock” was actually some sort of composite material designed to look like a rock. It was hollow too.

Hopper, who was an important figure in the development COBOL, the first English programming language, lived in my building for many years. After getting a B.A. at Vassar and M.A. and PhD at Yale, she eventually found her way into the Navy. At the time of her retirement her rank was Rear Admiral. I found this great write-up about her on the yale.edu server.

I think someone as accomplished as Admiral Hopper deserves a real rock.