Genevieve Grotjan & Code PURPLE (1912-2006)

She wasn't a spy lady, but her contribution toward the Allied victory cannot be measured. Nor can the contribution of the thousands of women serving their country through the field of cryptography.

A native of Buffalo, NY, Genevieve Grotjan  had attended the local university in hopes of becoming a math teacher. After graduation she was unable to secure a teaching position. In time she moved to Washington, DC where she worked for the Railroad Retirement Board and eventually the Signals Intelligence Service (SIS).

Cryptanalysts working for the Signals Intelligence Service (SIS) of the U.S. Army knew how crucial it was to decipher and read Japanese diplomatic ciphers. But their new code, PURPLE, wasn't breaking easily. For 18 months the team struggled with this difficult Japanese code.

Then, in September 1940, Genevieve made a discovery that would change the course of history. By analyzing and studying the intercepted coded messages, she found a correlation that no one else had yet detected. This breakthrough enabled other cryptanalysis to find similar links.

PURPLE Analog No. 1 cipher machine used by
American code breakers to crack the PURPLE Japanese code. 

Almost 60 years later, Frank Rowlett, a cryptologic pioneer and head of the PURPLE team, remembered that historic day when the code broke. "What Genevieve Grotjan did was a big step forward and was very significant in the solution of Purple." Her discovery, and the work of other team members, allowed the U.S. to read secret Japanese diplomatic messages and to continue reading them throughout WWII.