A Story of Harvard and Stanford

Colleges and Universities A-Z Stanford University
1

<p>Hi everyone! Although I'm not applying to Stanford, I found this story online to be pretty interesting. Anyone know if it's true?</p>

<p>It's pasted below:</p>

<p>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 into the Harvard University President's outer office and asked for an appointment. </p>

<p>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. </p>

<p>"We want to see the president," the man said softly. </p>

<p>"He'll be busy all day," the secretary snapped. </p>

<p>"We'll wait," the lady replied. </p>

<p>For hours the secretary ignored them, hoping that the couple would finally become discouraged and go away. </p>

<p>They didn't and the secretary grew frustrated and finally decided to disturb the president, even though it was a chore she always regretted. </p>

<p>"Maybe if you see them for a few minutes, they'll leave, " she said to him. </p>

<p>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. </p>

<p>The president, stern faced and with dignity, strutted toward thecouple. </p>

<p>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." </p>

<p>The president wasn't touched...He was shocked. </p>

<p>"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." </p>

<p>"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." </p>

<p>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." </p>

<p>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. </p>

<p>"If that is all it costs to start a University, why don't we just start our own?" </p>

<p>Her husband nodded. The president's face wilted in confusion and bewilderment. </p>

<p>Mr. and Mrs. Leland Stanford got up and 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. </p>

<p>You can easily judge the character of others by how they treat those who they think can do nothing for them or to them.</p>

2

<p>An urban legend. See Stanford.edu or Snopes.com for more information</p>

3

<p>yeah its not true.. but it would be funny.</p>

4

<p>The story seems to deliberately picture the pres of H in a negative light -> can't be true!</p>

5

<p>It is as true as a $3 bill.</p>

6

<p>"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... </p>

<p>Sound familiar? This story has been a circulating on the Internet for a few months now. It claims that in the 1880's, Harvard's President Charles Eliot dismissed the fabulously wealthy but poorly dressed Leland Stanford and his wife without realizing they were offering a large endowment to the University as a memorial to their deceased son. According to the story, the couple then went on to found Stanford University with millions of their own dollars.</p>

<p>While it's an interesting tale about the perils of arrogance, the story is not true and is now considered an urban legend. Follow the links below find the fact behind the fiction."</p>

<p>Related Links:</p>

<pre><code>* Stanford Archivist Margaret Kimball discounts the story
* Full text of the Harvard/Stanford urban legend
* Official history of Stanford University's founding
* Urban Legend Reference Page on the tale
</code></pre>

7

<p>hmm, I actually saw that story three years ago...i don't think it's very new, at any rate</p>

8

<p>True or not, the story reflects well on Stanford. It depicts Stanford as a university that emphasizes character over social class or outstanding academics.</p>

9

<p>So a phony story about Stanford "reflects well" on it?</p>

10

<p>Sure, a phony story can reflect well on anything. Of course, you wouldn't bring it up as support for an argument.</p>

11

<p>haha... it doesn't sound so unbelievable tho :), Then again, on the MIT boards, we often like criticizing our "little brother" ...<strong>chuckle chuckle</strong></p>

12

<p>I don't know what Caltech has to do with anything ;-)</p>

13

<p>true or not. I still <3 stanford.</p>

14

<p>what's with "<3" being used as a transitive verb?</p>

15

<p>"transitive verb"
uggh</p>

16

<p>Well, it makes a lot more sense than using it as an intransitive verb. If someone writes "I <3" (no object), my first reaction would be, "you <3 what?"</p>

17

<p>i really hope this isn't what they discuss at stanford</p>

18

<p>An interesting exerpt from the memoirs of A.D. White - a fellow mogul and a founder of Cornell:</p>

<p>"I remember that some of these people bitterly attacked Governor Stanford of California for the endowment of Stanford University, in part, from the rent of his vineyards. People who had not a word to say against one theological seminary for accepting the Daniel Drew endowment, or against another for accepting the Jay Gould endowment, were horrified that the Stanford University should receive revenue from a vineyard. The vineyards of California, if their product were legally protected from adulteration, could be made one of the most potent influences against drunkenness that our country has seen. The California wines are practically the only pure wines accessible to Americans. They are so plentiful that there is no motive to adulterate them, and their use among those of us who are so unwise as to drink anything except water ought to be effectively advocated as supplanting the drinking of beer poisoned with strychnine, whisky poisoned with fusel-oil, and "French claret" poisoned with salicylic acid and aniline."</p>

19

<p>I'm not arguing that "<3" or whatever it is should be used as an intransitive verb, I'm asking, "What the heck does it mean at all!?"</p>

<p>Byerly --
what one Earth was the point of that post?</p>

20

<p><3 --> heart --> love.</p>