The University of Bath is saddened to learn of the death of Dame Stephanie 'Steve' Shirley CH DBE LLD, a noted computer businesswoman and philanthropist.
She was born in 1933 in Germany to a Jewish father, and came to Britain in July 1939 on the Kindertransport that took endangered children from Nazi Germany. She was well looked after by her foster parents, but had to take Mathematics by special arrangement at the local boys school, as her girls school didn’t offer it.
She worked at Post Office Research in Dollis Hill, writing machine code programs by day and getting an honours degree in Mathematics via evening classes.
She founded the software house Freelance Programmers in 1962 to provide computing employment for women working from home, adopting the name “Steve” to ensure that her letters and appointments were taken seriously. In those days coding sheets were sent off for typing onto punched cards or tape, and the computer output was returned by Royal Mail. Despite this latency, the firm was very successful, for example writing the “black box” software for Concorde. It became F International, was floated on the Stock Exchange, and made millionaires of Steve and some 70 other senior staff.
She was the first female President of the British Computer Society, and Master of the Worshipful Company of Information Technologists.
After “retirement” she focused on philanthropy, notably in computing and in autism (her son was autistic). The University of Bath conferred an Honorary LLD on her in 2006 for her services to computing and philanthropy.