First Impressions - How Harvard Created Stanford
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 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 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,
but he detested gingham dresses and homespun suits cluttering up
his outer office. The resident, 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
accidentally 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.
You can easily judge the character of others by how they treat those
who they think can do nothing.
A TRUE STORY
by Malcolm Forbes
