Reflecting on two old rivals
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Regarding “Old Rivals,” Christopher Reynolds’ Nov. 2 stories on UC Berkeley and Stanford: The story -- it may be apocryphal -- goes that Leland and Jane Stanford first went to Harvard. She had on a housedress, and he was not in a suit.
The president’s secretary told them her boss was busy all day. They said they would wait. They waited for many hours.
Finally he came out of his office and they approached him and told him they wanted to have a building constructed in memory of their young son.
The president went into a long explanation of how expensive that would be. Finally Jane asked how much and when the president named the figure, she turned to Leland and said they could build a whole campus for that amount in California. So they did.
Jean Mahlberg
Laguna Woods
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I went to school in Northern California and am now in Orange County.
The Berkeley-Stanford story made me laugh first, then want to plan a trip back up there second. Thanks for the great reporting.
Kimberly Capwell
Newport Beach
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