Erna Schneider Hoover

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Erna Schneider Hoover
Erna Schneider

(1926-06-19) June 19, 1926 (age 93)
Citizenship United States
Alma mater Wellesley B.A.,
Yale Ph.D.
Known forComputerized system
for phone traffic [2]
Spouse(s)Charles Wilson Hoover, Jr.
Awards National Inventors Hall of Fame, 2008 [3]
Wellesley alumni
achievement award [2]
Scientific career
Institutions Bell Labs
Thesis An Analysis of
Conditional Sentences [2]



Early life

Erna Schneider was born on June 19, 1926, [1] in Irvington, New Jersey. [2] Her family lived in South Orange, New Jersey and her father was a dentist and her mother was a teacher. [2] She had a younger brother who died from polio at the age of five. [2] She loved swimming, sailing, canoeing, and was interested in science at an early age. According to one source, she read the biography of Marie Curie which suggested to her that she could succeed in a scientific field despite the prevailing ideas about gender roles at the time. [2] She graduated from Columbia High School in nearby Maplewood in 1944, which would later induct her into its hall of fame in 2007. [6]

Hoover attended Wellesley College where she studied classical and medieval philosophy and history. [1] [7] [8] [9] She graduated from Wellesley in 1948 with honors, earning a bachelor's degree, and she was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa and was honored as a Durant Scholar. [2] She earned her Ph.D from Yale University in philosophy and foundations of mathematics in 1951. [1] [7]


Hoover was a professor at Swarthmore College from 1951 to 1954 [1] where she taught philosophy and logic. [2] However, she had been unable to win a tenure-track position, possibly because of her gender and marital status, according to one view. In 1953, she married Charles Wilson Hoover, Jr., and he was very supportive of his wife's career pursuits. [2] In 1954, she joined Bell Labs as a senior technical associate, and was promoted in 1956. According to one source, the internal training program was the "equivalent of a master's degree in computer science." [2] Switching systems were moving from electronic to computer-based technologies. Problems happened when a call center would be inundated with thousands of calls in a short amount of time, overwhelming the unreliable electronic relays, and causing the entire system to "freeze up." [2]


Hoover's thinking about the invention happened while she was in a hospital recuperating after having given birth to her second daughter, according to several sources. [11] [7] [12] Lawyers for Bell Labs handling the patent had to go to her house to visit her while she was on maternity leave so that she could sign the papers. [1] The result of the invention was much more robust service to callers during peak load times:


Erna Schneider Hoover, 2008 [4]
Hoover is a lifelong advocate for higher education. As board member of The College of New Jersey, she was instrumental in its efforts to attract the state's best students, hire women faculty, and win more state aid. The College of New Jersey (TCNJ) 27.jpg




She was awarded one of the first patents for computer software. [2] She was elected as a member of the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2008. [11] She received the Wellesley College alumni achievement award. [2]

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  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "Hall of Fame -- induction info". National Inventors Hall of Fame. 2008. Archived from the original on 2012-04-28. Retrieved 2012-06-05.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 "Erna Hoover -- Biography". World of Computer Science. 2012. Retrieved 2012-06-17.
  3. National Inventors Hall of Fame Archived 2010-07-09 at the Wayback Machine website. Accessed March 18, 2010.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Amy Ellis Nutt (June 18, 2008). "Fame calls on 2 titans of telephony in NJ". The Star-Ledger. Retrieved 2012-06-05.
  5. 1 2 3 Calvin Sims (March 9, 1987). "BELL LABS: ADAPTING TO MONOPOLY'S END". The New York Times. Retrieved 2012-06-05.
  6. Hall of Fame Archived 2018-11-18 at the Wayback Machine , Columbia High School. Accessed November 12, 2018.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 "Erna Schneider Hoover profile". Global History Network of IEEE. 2012. Retrieved 2012-06-17.
  8. "Biography". Fact Monster. 2012-06-17. Retrieved 2012-06-17.
  9. 1 2 "Erna Schneider Hoover profile". 2012-06-17. Retrieved 2012-06-17.
  11. 1 2 3 4 "Hoover, Erna (Schneider)". Smart Computing. 2012. Retrieved 2012-06-17.
  12. "Erna Schneider Hoover Computerized Telephone Switching System". Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 2012. Retrieved 2012-06-17.
  13. See Patent #3623007 November 23, 1971