Richard Milton Bloch

[1] Bloch was born in Rochester, New York, on June 18, 1921, and grew up there, being graduated from Benjamin Franklin High School.

He then immediately joined the Navy, as World War II was in progress, and was assigned to the Naval Research Institute.

Grace Hopper called Bloch the Mozart of the computer due to his ability to write a program in ink and have it run the first time.

Robert Campbell called Bloch the primary force in getting the Mark I into productive operation.

Grace Hopper just copied Bloch's routine into her own program when needed, rather than using the (slow) sine unit built into the machine.