Alexandra Illmer Forsythe

Alexandra "Sandra" Winifred Illmer Forsythe (May 20, 1918 – January 2, 1980) was an American computer scientist best known for co-authoring a series of computer science textbooks[1] during the 1960s and 1970s,[2] including the first ever computer science textbook, Computer Science: A First Course, in 1969.[3]

Alexandra Illmer Forsythe
BornMay 20, 1918
Newton, Massachusetts
DiedJanuary 2, 1980 (1980-01-03) (aged 61)
Santa Clara County, California
CitizenshipUnited States
Alma materSwarthmore College
Vassar
Brown University
Known forWriting the first computer science textbook
Spouse(s)George Forsythe
ChildrenDiana E. Forsythe
Scientific career
FieldsMathematics, computer science
InstitutionsStanford University
University of Utah

Biography

Forsythe was born in Newton, Massachusetts and raised in Cortland, New York.[4] She attended Swarthmore College, where she met her future husband George Forsythe, and earned her bachelor's degree in mathematics. She and George were both accepted to the PhD program in mathematics at Brown University. Although an exceptional student, she was unable to continue in the program because the dean did not approve of female mathematicians and cut her fellowship support.[5] She eventually left Brown and completed her master's degree at Vassar College in 1941 while serving as an instructor.[4][6]

In 1969, Forsythe published Computer Science: A First Course.[3] In 1975, she published a second edition.[3] In 1978, Forsythe and a co-author, E. I. Organick, published Programming Language Structures.[3]

Forsythe taught at Stanford and the University of Utah.[4]

Alexandra Forsythe was married to George Forsythe and helped establish the computer science program at Stanford University.[7]

Books
  • Forsythe, Alexandra I.; Keenan, Thomas; Organick, Elliott; Sternberg, Warren (1969). Computer science: A First Course (1 ed.). New York: Wiley. p. 741. ISBN 0471266809.
  • Forsythe, Alexandra I.; Keenan, Thomas; Organick, Elliott; Stenberg, Warren (1970). Computer science: BASIC Language (1 ed.). New York: Wiley. ISBN 0471266779.
  • Organick, Elliott; Forsythe, Alexandra I.; Plummer, Robert (1978). Programming Language Structures (2 ed.). New York: Academic Press. ISBN 9780125282604.

References
  1. Narins, Brigham (2002). World of Computer Science: A-L. Gale Group. pp. 243. ISBN 9780787649609.
  2. "The Ada Project". www.women.cs.cmu.edu. Retrieved May 11, 2016.
  3. Inman, James A. (2004). Computers and Writing: The Cyborg Era. Routledge. p. 67. ISBN 9781135636951.
  4. "Oral History Interview with Alexandra Forsythe" (PDF).
  5. Misa, Thomas J. (2016). Communities of Computing: Computer Science and Society in the ACM. Morgan & Claypool Publishers. pp. 68–69. ISBN 9781970001877.
  6. Obituary, San Francisco Chronicle, January 4, 1980, reproduced by findagrave, retrieved May 12, 2016.
  7. "University Digital Conservancy".
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