It is with a heavy heart that we announce our founder Dame Stephanie Shirley CH has died, aged 91.
Dame Stephanie came to the UK from Germany in the war as a child refugee and went on to found a tech company in the seventies which made her one of the wealthiest women in the UK.
We knew Dame Stephanie as 'Steve' - the nickname she used in order to be taken seriously in a man's world.
Steve was born Vera Buchthal in Dortmund, Germany in 1933, but in 1939 came to England on the Kindertransport, aged just five. She and her sister were raised in the West Midlands by loving foster parents.
After leaving school where she excelled in maths, Steve worked at the Post Office Research Station at Dollis Hill, building computers and writing code. She took evening classes for six years to obtain an honours degree in mathematics. In 1959, she moved to CDL Ltd, who also developed computers.
She found working in a sexist, male dominated industry extremely limiting so decided to start her own company, selling software. The company was called Freelance Programmers, and was staffed by women working from home. This flexible approach to employment at that time was revolutionary. The company went on to be extremely successful and made Steve very wealthy and many of her employees, millionaires.
Steve and her beloved husband Derek had one child, a son called Giles who was autistic and had epilepsy. Giles required a significant amount of support and was extremely debilitated by regular seizures. All of her philanthropic work stems from a desire to make the world better for autistic people and families like hers. Giles sadly passed away in 1998 at the age of 35.
Steve set up two autism charities before Autistica; Priors Court - a school, and Autism at Kingwood - supported living for adults. Realising the need for research to change the future for autistic people, she founded Autistica in 2004, the UK's first national autism research charity.
In recognition of her incredible contribution to the IT industry and philanthropy, in 2017 Steve was appointed Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour (CH) in 2017, a membership limited to only 65 individuals globally.
Unlike many founders, Steve stepped back from running Autistica as soon as she felt able. She was determined that the charity was representative of the experiences of families across the UK – not just her own, and led by experts in their fields. She funded a number of major projects over the past 20 years and was deeply engaged with Autistica’s work until her death.
Everyone at Autistica is immensely proud to have Steve as our founder. Her values and beliefs are embedded in our charity and drive our commitment to innovative problem solving, acting with urgency and embracing difference.
Steve often said that she wanted her life to be 'one worth saving'. She achieved that in so many ways. She leaves behind an incredible legacy for autistic people and their families, of support, research and policy change, that will continue to change lives for generations to come.