Memorial {Insp}

"Memorial"

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 and 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," 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, but 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 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 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.

Onecan easily judge the character of others by how they
treat those who they think can do nothing for them.

----- A TRUE STORY
Received on Sun Oct 3 05:10:31 2004