First Impression

First Impressions

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
resident, 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.

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