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.
"We'd like 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 greatly frustrated and finally decided to disturb the
president, even though it was a chore she always regretted.
"Maybe if you see them for a few minutes, they'll leave," she said
to him! He sighed in exasperation and nodded. Someone of his
importance obviously didn't have the time to spend with them, and 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 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
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 buildings here 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.
NOTE: I just received this story via e-mail and do not know if it is true.
