The lady in the faded gingham dress

Got this story in with a Stanford T-shirt I received in the mail today.

"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 into the Harvard University President's outer office without an appointment.

The secretary could tell in a moment that such backwoods, country hicks had no business at Harvard, and thought they 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," said the secretary.

"We'll wait," the lady politely replied.

For hours the secretary ignored them, hoping that the couple would finally become discouraged and leave. When they didn't, the secretary grew frustrated and finally decided to disturb the president.

"Maybe if you see them for just a few minutes, they will leave," she whispered.

He sighed and nodded. He detested gingham dresses and homespun suits cluttering up his outer office. The president, stern faced and with absolute dignity, strutted toward the couple.

The lady spoke to 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 was not moved.

"Madam," he said, "We can't put up a satue for every person who attended Harard 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 satutue. We thought we would like to give a building to Harvard."

The president rolled his eyes. He glaced 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 he had gotten through to her. Maybe they would leave 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 then got up and walked away, traveling to Palo alto, CA where they established the university that now bears their name - Stanford University - a memorial to their 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."