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True
Story
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 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, and traveled
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
Defining
Moments
Archives
Copyright
© 2006, Jace Carlton. All International Rights Reserved.
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