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'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.
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, California where they
established the University that bears their name, a memorial to a son that Harvard no
longer cared about!
