A woman in a cheap cotton dress and her husband in a humble suit got off the train in Boston and walked timidly (without an appointment) to the office of the secretary to the President of Harvard University.
The secretary guessed at one point that those peasants who had come from the forests had no business at Harvard.
“We would like to see the president,” the man said gently.
“He’s busy,” the secretary replied.
“We’ll wait,” the woman replied. For hours the secretary ignored them, hoping the couple would finally lose heart and leave, but they didn’t, and the secretary saw her frustration growing and finally decided to interrupt the president, even though it was a task she always avoided.
“Perhaps if you talk to them for a few minutes they’ll leave,” the secretary said to the University President. He grimaced but agreed; someone of his stature obviously didn’t have time to deal with people in cheap dresses and suits. Nevertheless, the president, frowning but with dignity, strode arrogantly toward the couple.
The woman said to him:
We had a son who attended Harvard for only one year. He loved Harvard and was happy here, but he died in an accident a year ago. My husband and I would like to erect something somewhere on campus in our son’s memory.
The president wasn’t interested and said:
– Ma’am, we can’t put up a statue for every person who attends Harvard and dies; if we did, this place would look like a cemetery.
“Oh no,” the woman explained quickly:
We don’t want to erect a statue; we think we’d like to donate a building to Harvard.
The president narrowed his eyes, glanced at the couple’s dress and cheap suit, and then exclaimed:
“A building! Do you have any idea how much a building costs? We’ve spent over $7.5 million on buildings here at Harvard!” For a moment the woman was silent, and the president was pleased because perhaps he could get rid of them now.
The woman turned to her husband and said softly:
“Is it so little to start a university? Why don’t we start our own?” Then her husband agreed, and the president’s face darkened with confusion and bewilderment. Mr. Leland Stanford and his wife stood up and left, traveling to Palo Alto, California, where they established the university that bears his name, Stanford University, in memory of a son whom Harvard hadn’t taken an interest in.
Leland Stanford Junior College was founded in 1891 in Palo Alto. It was named in honor of the deceased son of a wealthy landowner. That was his memorial, and today Stanford University is ranked number one in the world, ahead of Harvard.
How easy it is to judge by appearances, and how easy it is to be wrong when… judging by appearances!!!
Text from the network.