The Gingham Dress

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 & probably didn't even deserve to be in

Cambridge. "We'd like to see the president," the man said softly. "He
will be busy all day," the secretary snapped. "We will 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, and he detested
gingham dresses and homespun suits cluttering up his outer office.


The president, 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 cost 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 for them.

A TRUE STORY By Malcolm Forbes