Julia Parsons, USN, Enigma Code Breaker Dead at 104

The New York Times has published the obituary of Julia Parsons, US Navy, who passed away at 104 years old. She operated the Bombe to break Enigma codes during World War II. The obit includes a photo of her in uniform in 1942. This is an important chapter in computer science history, a tribute to the women who stepped up and performed remarkable work, and those who did this work will be completely gone in just a few years time.

According to the article:

A lover of puzzles and crosswords while growing up in Pittsburgh during the Great Depression, Mrs. Parsons deciphered German military messages that had been created by an Enigma machine, a typewriter-size device with a keyboard wired to internal rotors, which generated millions of codes. Her efforts provided Allied forces with information critical to evading, attacking and sinking enemy submarines.

The work was extremely classified at the time. Even after the war, Mrs. Parsons (then Potter) never told her secret work to anyone. The article recounts that it was only in 1997 that she learned the Enigma work had been declassified when she was visited the visited the “National Cryptologic Museum near Washington, just another tourist interested in American history.”

The long lasting impact of the work that Mrs. Parsons and her team did during the war cannot be overstated. Not only did it directly contribute to the Allied victory, but also played a crucial role in the early development of computing. This early computing era directly motivated the development of the many modern advancements in cryptography since then and that protect all of us to this day.

For those who wish to learn more, take a look at the 2018 interview with her titled Alumna Recalls Secret, “Fascinating” Career as WWII Codebreaker published by Carnegie Mellon University.