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Last Update: June 21, 2011

I had to share this. Great story!
 
 
This is a true story. 
 

                            A GINGHAM DRESS
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 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

"People will forget what you said; People will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel."
 
Amen
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Wayne Hudler Premium
Wonderful story and the kind of real life story that Paul Harvey's "The rest of the story..." would cover.

Thanks
chunkynonkey Premium
right-on ,you go girl! nothing like a dose of old fashioned humility.
michele Premium
nice post, like burntout says, never judge a book by its cover - I remember a close friend who lost a HUGE amount of weight said how awful shop assistants in nice clothes shops made her feel. A sort of look you up and down attitude and NEVER approached to see if she required any help. Although my friend had more expendable cash than most. When she fought the battle with weight and dropped down to a size 12, shop assistants fell over themselves to serve her.
burntout Premium
I worked for a gentleman one time who was to understate it, rich. He wore common clothes talked to anybody on the street and didn't shave but every once and again. I have seen first hand people making that error of judgement you just posted. Wear your gold on the inside where it counts and never judge a book by it's cover. Thanks Joan.
Strauss7270 Premium
Thats is a great story
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