The President of Harvard made a mistake by prejudging people and it cost  him dearly. 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 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 to do. "Maybe if they just  see you for a few minutes, they'll leave," she told him. And he signed  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 that 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, a memorial to a son that Harvard no longer cared about.