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. She frowned. ¡°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 they just see you for a few minutes, they¡¯ll leave,¡± she told 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 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. And 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 plant at Harvard.¡±
For a moment the lady was silent. The president was pleased. He could get rid of them now. And 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. And Mr. and Mrs. Leland Stanford 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.

Lesson: You can easily judge the character of others by how they treat those who can do nothing for them or to them.