A lady in a faded gingham dress and her husband, dressed in a homespun
threadbare suit, stepped off the train in Boston, and walked timidly without
an appointment into the Harvard University President's outer office. The
secretary could tell in a moment that such backwoods, country hicks had no
business at Harvard and probably didn't even deserve to be in Cambridge. She
frowned...
"We want to see the president," the man said softly. "He'll be busy all
day," the secretary snapped. "We'll wait," the lady replied.
For hours, the secretary ignored them, hoping that the couple would finally
become discouraged and go away. They didn't and the secretary grew
frustrated and finally decided to disturb the president, even though it was
a chore she always regretted. "Maybe, if they just see you for a few
minutes, they'll leave," she told him.
He sighed in exasperation and nodded. Someone of his importance obviously
didn't have the time to spend with them, but he detested gingham dresses and
homespun suits cluttering up his outer office. The president, stern-faced
and with dignity, strutted toward the couple. The lady told him, "We had a
son who attended Harvard for one year. He loved Harvard. He was happy here.
But about a year ago, he was accidentally killed. My husband and I would
like to erect a memorial to him, somewhere on campus."
The president wasn't touched.... He was shocked. "Madam," he said gruffly,
"we can't put up a statue for every person who has attended Harvard and
died. If we did, this place would look like a cemetery." "Oh, no," the lady
explained quickly. "We don't want to erect a statue. We thought we would
like to give a building to Harvard." The president rolled his eyes. He
glanced at the gingham dress and homespun suit, then exclaimed, "A building!
Do you have any earthly idea how much a building costs? We have over seven
and a half million dollars in the physical plant at Harvard." For a moment
the lady was silent. The president was pleased. Maybe he could get rid of
them now.
The lady turned to her husband and said quietly, "Is that all it costs to
start a university? Why don't we just start our own?" Her husband nodded.
The president's face wilted in confusion and bewilderment. Mr. and Mrs.
Leland Stanford got up and walked away, traveling to Palo Alto, California
where they established the university that bears their name, STANFORD
UNIVERSITY, a memorial to a son that Harvard no longer cared about.
You can easily judge the character of others by how they treat those who
they think can do nothing for them or to them. -- by Malcolm Forbes
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