An older lady in a faded gingham dress and her elder
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 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. 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 Mr. and Mrs. Leland
Stanford walked away, traveling to Palo Alto, CA 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.