in a faded ging\u00adham dress and her hus\u00adband, dres\u00adsed in a homespun thre\u00adad\u00adba\u00adre suit, step\u00adped off the train in Bos\u00adton, and wal\u00adked timid\u00adly wit\u00adhout an appoint\u00adment into the Har\u00advard Uni\u00adver\u00adsi\u00adty President's outer office.<\/p>\n
The secre\u00adta\u00adry could tell in a moment that such back\u00adwoods, coun\u00adtry hicks had no busi\u00adness at Har\u00advard and pro\u00adba\u00adb\u00adly didn't even deser\u00adve to be in Cambridge.<\/p>\n
\"<\/span>We want to see the pre\u00adsi\u00addent,\"<\/i> the man said soft\u00adly. \"He'll be busy all day,\"<\/i> the secre\u00adta\u00adry snap\u00adped. \"We'll wait,\"<\/i> the lady replied.<\/p>\n For hours the secre\u00adta\u00adry igno\u00adred them, hoping that the cou\u00adple would final\u00adly beco\u00adme dis\u00adcou\u00adra\u00adged and go away. They didn't and the secre\u00adta\u00adry grew fru\u00adstra\u00adted and final\u00adly deci\u00added to disturb the pre\u00adsi\u00addent, even though it was a cho\u00adre she always reg\u00adret\u00adted. \"May\u00adbe if you see them for a few minu\u00adtes, they'll lea\u00adve,\"<\/i> she said to him!<\/p>\n He sig\u00adhed in exas\u00adpe\u00adra\u00adti\u00adon and nod\u00added. Someone of his importance obvious\u00adly didn't have the time to spend with them, but he dete\u00adsted ging\u00adham dres\u00adses and homespun suits clut\u00adte\u00adring up his outer office. The pre\u00adsi\u00addent, stern faced and with dignity, strut\u00adted toward the couple.<\/p>\n The lady told him, \"We had a son who atten\u00added Har\u00advard for one year. He loved Har\u00advard. He was hap\u00adpy here. But about a year ago, he was acci\u00adden\u00adtal\u00adly kil\u00adled. My hus\u00adband and I would like to erect a memo\u00adri\u00adal to him, some\u00adwhe\u00adre on campus.\"<\/i><\/p>\n The pre\u00adsi\u00addent wasn't touch\u00aded.... He was shocked. \"Madam,\"<\/i> he said, gruf\u00adfly, \"we can't put up a sta\u00adtue for every per\u00adson who atten\u00added Har\u00advard and died. If we did, this place would look like a cemetery.\"<\/i><\/p>\n \"<\/span>Oh, no,\"<\/i> the lady explai\u00adned quick\u00adly. \"We don't want to erect a sta\u00adtue. We thought we would like to give a buil\u00adding to Har\u00advard.\"<\/i> The pre\u00adsi\u00addent rol\u00adled his eyes. He glan\u00adced at the ging\u00adham dress and homespun suit, then exclai\u00admed, \"A buil\u00adding! Do you have any earth\u00adly idea how much a buil\u00adding costs? We have over seven and a half mil\u00adli\u00adon dol\u00adlars in the phy\u00adsi\u00adcal buil\u00addings here at Harvard.\"<\/i><\/p>\n For a moment the lady was silent. The pre\u00adsi\u00addent was plea\u00adsed. May\u00adbe he could get rid of them now. The lady tur\u00adned to her hus\u00adband and said quiet\u00adly, \"Is that all it costs to start a uni\u00adver\u00adsi\u00adty? Why don't we just start our own?\"<\/i> Her hus\u00adband nod\u00added. The president's face wil\u00adted in con\u00adfu\u00adsi\u00adon and bewilderment.<\/p>\n Mr. and Mrs. Leland Stan\u00adford<\/b> got up and wal\u00adked away, tra\u00adve\u00adling to Palo Alto, Cali\u00adfor\u00adnia whe\u00adre they estab\u00adlished the uni\u00adver\u00adsi\u00adty that bears their name, Stan\u00adford Uni\u00adver\u00adsi\u00adty<\/b>, a memo\u00adri\u00adal to a son that Har\u00advard no lon\u00adger cared about.<\/p>\n You can easi\u00adly judge the cha\u00adrac\u00adter of others by how they tre\u00adat tho\u00adse who they think can do not\u00adhing for them.<\/cite><\/p>\n [cre\u00addits: Mal\u00adcolm For\u00adbes via John G.]<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" in a faded ging\u00adham dress and her hus\u00adband, dres\u00adsed in a homespun thre\u00adad\u00adba\u00adre suit, step\u00adped off the train in Bos\u00adton, and wal\u00adked timid\u00adly wit\u00adhout an appoint\u00adment into the Har\u00advard Uni\u00adver\u00adsi\u00adty President's outer office. The secre\u00adta\u00adry could tell in a moment that such back\u00adwoods, coun\u00adtry hicks had no busi\u00adness at Har\u00advard and pro\u00adba\u00adb\u00adly didn't even deserve [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":561,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[201],"tags":[7151,7149,7150],"class_list":["post-80573","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aha","tag-dont-judge-a-book-by-the-cover","tag-harvard","tag-stanford"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.re-actio.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80573","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.re-actio.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.re-actio.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.re-actio.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/561"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.re-actio.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80573"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.re-actio.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80573\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.re-actio.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.re-actio.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.re-actio.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}