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Did Harvard really turn down an endowment from Leland Stanford?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...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. 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. Related Links:
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