The Gingham Dress

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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