Harvard

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 folks had
no business at Harvard and probably didn't even deserve to be in
Cambrigde. 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. He sighed in exasperation and nodded. Someone of his importance
obviously didn't have the time to spend with them, but he detested gingham
and homespun suits cluttering his 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, and was very 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 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. 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 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."

- Malcolm Forbes