> > 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'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, 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 e 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

 

Nice! Me people suck!

 

actually....according to the stanford website

Leland Stanford jr died at age 15 so he never went to harvard.
Furthermore:

"The Stanfords returned to America in May and, before proceeding to Palo Alto, visited Cornell, Yale, Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. They talked with President Eliot of Harvard about three ideas: a university at Palo Alto, a large institution in San Francisco combining a lecture hall and a museum, and a technical school. Asked which of these seemed most desirable, Eliot answered, a university. Mrs. Stanford inquired how much the endowment should be, in addition to land and buildings, and he replied, not less than $5 million. A silence followed. Finally, Mr. Stanford said with a smile, "Well, Jane, we could manage that, couldn't we?" and a grave Mrs. Stanford nodded her assent."

"Although they consulted with several of the presidents of leading institutions, the founders were not content to model their university after eastern schools. "Of all the young men who come to me with letters of introduction from friends in the East, the most helpless are college young men," Stanford said. As the Stanfords' thoughts matured, their ideas of "practical education" enlarged until they arrived at the concept of producing cultured and useful citizens who were especially prepared for personal success in their chosen professions."





its a nice story tho....

however I found this: "The "rudely-spurned university endowment" theme of the Stanford story has played out at least once in real life. In July 1998, William Lindsay of Las Vegas contacted an unnamed Scottish institution of higher learning by telephone, saying he was minded to give some money to a university in Scotland. Taking him for a crank, he was rudely dismissed by the person he spoke to. His next call to Glasgow University met with a warmer reception, and in March 2000 that school received a check for