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 president of
Harvard'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 to do.
"Maybe if they just see you for a few minutes,
they'll leave," she told him. And 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 with dignity,
strutted toward the couple.
The lady told him, "We had a son that
attended Harvard for one year. He loved Harvard.
He was happy here. But about year ago, he was accidentally
killed, and 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 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. He could get rid of them now. And 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.
And then Mr. and Mrs. Leland Stanford walked
away, traveling to Palo Alto, California where they established
the University that bears their name, 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 can do nothing for them or to them.
--Malcolm Forbes
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