Did you ever meet a famous person without knowing it? Did any of your teachers, mentors or professors make a noteworthy contribution to modern day society?
At some point in the 1977-1978 school year, at Lakehead University I took a computer programming course that included the likes of FORTRAN and COBOL.
The professor was Dr. Kathleen Booth (1922-2022). She was a tall, elegant woman with a charming British accent. Her lectures were clear and precise, and she was happy to help us debug our ill-fated programming attempts. I thoroughly enjoyed her class. She had been at the university since 1972, but I had never met her. Perhaps, that was because unlike her colleagues she did not have an office in the Ryan building row of math offices. A hallway, that I had often trod in search of assistance for some problem or proof that was alluding me.
I was vaguely aware that Dr. Andrew Booth was the president of Lakehead at the time, but I did not connect that they were husband and wife. Nor did I know that she had had a profound impact on modern day commuting. The fact that we were even programming in code with English language-based instructions was largely due to her.
Even if someone had explained all of that to me I don’t think that I would have been able to grasp the magnitude of her accomplishments and contributions at that stage of my life. I also did not know that this was her last year before retiring from a remarkable career, although she continued to publish into her 70s.
My ignorance would have persisted were it not for the rise of the information age in the late 20th century and on into the new millennium. Through YouTube, I stumbled upon the fact that she was one of the original authors of the Assembly (aka Assembler) language. She had once worked with John Von Neumann, and she even wrote code to translate French to English (decades before modern translation apps).
Upon learning these amazing facts, almost 50 years later, I became somewhat retroactively embarrassed that this titan of computer science had to tolerate my dumb mistakes. But as mentioned, she was such a good teacher, and I never sensed any impatience from her.
Many stories are now coming to light of women scientists who had to beat the odds to get places in learning institutions and when they did, credit for their work was stolen by men. This went on from the at least the 1700s and through the 20th century. Some say it is still the case, but one must admit improvements have been made. The story of Dr. Kathleen Booth contains elements of this unhappy syndrome.
Anyway, I am just an average person, but I am kind of proud to say that I studied under Dr. Kathleen Booth.
Consider taking the time to watch this video to get a better grasp of the contribution that she made to life as we know it today.
The Centre Line 