Age, Biography and Wiki

Frances Spence (Frances V. Bilas) was born on 2 March, 1922 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S., is an American physicist and computer scientist. Discover Frances Spence's Biography, Age, Height, Physical Stats, Dating/Affairs, Family and career updates. Learn How rich is she in this year and how she spends money? Also learn how she earned most of networth at the age of 90 years old?

Popular As Frances V. Bilas
Occupation Computer programmer
Age 90 years old
Zodiac Sign Pisces
Born 2 March 1922
Birthday 2 March
Birthplace Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Date of death 18 July, 2012
Died Place N/A
Nationality United States

We recommend you to check the complete list of Famous People born on 2 March. She is a member of famous computer with the age 90 years old group.

Frances Spence Height, Weight & Measurements

At 90 years old, Frances Spence height not available right now. We will update Frances Spence's Height, weight, Body Measurements, Eye Color, Hair Color, Shoe & Dress size soon as possible.

Physical Status
Height Not Available
Weight Not Available
Body Measurements Not Available
Eye Color Not Available
Hair Color Not Available

Who Is Frances Spence's Husband?

Her husband is Homer W. Spence (1947-death)

Family
Parents Not Available
Husband Homer W. Spence (1947-death)
Sibling Not Available
Children 3

Frances Spence Net Worth

Her net worth has been growing significantly in 2023-2024. So, how much is Frances Spence worth at the age of 90 years old? Frances Spence’s income source is mostly from being a successful computer. She is from United States. We have estimated Frances Spence's net worth, money, salary, income, and assets.

Net Worth in 2024 $1 Million - $5 Million
Salary in 2024 Under Review
Net Worth in 2023 Pending
Salary in 2023 Under Review
House Not Available
Cars Not Available
Source of Income computer

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Timeline

1922

Frances V. Spence ( Bilas; March 2, 1922 – July 18, 2012 ) was one of the original programmers for the ENIAC (the first electronic digital computer).

She is considered one of the first computer programmers in history.

The other five ENIAC programmers were Betty Holberton, Ruth Teitelbaum, Kathleen Antonelli, Marlyn Meltzer, and Jean Bartik.

She was born Frances V. Bilas in Philadelphia in 1922 and was the second of five sisters.

Her parents both held jobs in the education sector, her father as an engineer for the Philadelphia Public School System and her mother as a teacher.

1938

Bilas attended the South Philadelphia High School for Girls and graduated in 1938.

She originally attended Temple University, but switched to Chestnut Hill College after being awarded a scholarship.

1940

This documentary, created by Kathy Kleiman and the ENIAC Programmers Project, combines actual footage of the ENIAC team from the 1940s with interviews with the female team members as they reflect on their time working together on the ENIAC.

It is the first documentary of a series of three, and parts two and three will be entitled The Coders and The Future-Maker, respectively.

1942

She majored in mathematics with a minor in physics and graduated in 1942.

While there, she met Kathleen Antonelli, who later also became an ENIAC programmer.

1946

Photos of the women working on the computer often went without credit in newspapers at the time, and when the ENIAC was completed and unveiled to the public on February 15, 1946, the US Army failed to mention the names of the female programmers who had programmed the machine to run such sophisticated calculations.

This further contributed to the perceived disconnect between women and computing.

Frances Bilas and the other women were originally hired by the University of Pennsylvania's Moore School of Engineering to create the ENIAC, which was needed to compute ballistics trajectories as part of a team of eighty women.

The Moore School of Engineering was funded by the US Army, and at the time they were hiring female programmers in particular due to the fact that many young American men were fighting overseas in World War II.

Bilas and her Chestnut Hill College classmate Kathleen Antonelli were part of a smaller team within the ENIAC team.

In addition to their larger programming duties, they were also assigned to the operation of an analog computing machine known as a Differential Analyzer, which was used to calculate ballistics equations (something which all the women on the ENIAC team were proficient at doing by hand).

When the War ended, both Spence and Antonelli continued working with the ENIAC and they collaborated with other leading mathematicians.

1947

In 1947, she married Homer W. Spence, an Army electrical engineer from the Aberdeen Proving Grounds who had been assigned to the ENIAC project and later became head of the Computer Research Branch.

They had three sons (Joseph, Richard, and William).

Frances Spence had continued working on the ENIAC in the years after the war, but shortly after her marriage, she resigned to raise a family.

The ENIAC project was a classified project by the US Army to construct the first all-electronic digital computer.

While its hardware was primarily built by a team of men, its computational development was led by a team of six programmers (called "Computers"), all women from similar backgrounds as Spence.

Despite her importance as one of the original programmers of the ENIAC, the role that she and the other female programmers took on was largely downplayed at the time due to the stigma that women were not interested in technology.

1997

In 1997, Spence was inducted into the Women in Technology International Hall of Fame, along with the other original ENIAC programmers.

Their work paved the way for the electronic computers of the future, and their innovation kick-started the rise of electronic computing and computer programming in the Post-World War II era.

2010

In 2010, a documentary called, "Top Secret Rosies: The Female "Computers" of WWII" was released.

2013

The film centered around in-depth interviews of three of the six women programmers, focusing on the commendable patriotic contributions they made during World War II.The ENIAC team is the inspiration behind the award-winning 2013 documentary The Computers.