Zephaniah Swift Moore (November 20, 1770 – June 29, 1823) was an American Congregational clergyman and educator. He taught at Dartmouth College during the early 1810s and had a house built in Hanover, New Hampshire that now serves as Dartmouth's Blunt Alumni Center. He served as the President of Williams College between 1815 and 1821 and the first President of Amherst College between 1821 and 1823. He is most famous for abandoning Williams in order to found Amherst, taking some of the faculty and 15 students with him. Supposedly, he also took portions of the Williams College library with him. Though plausible, this account is unsubstantiated, and was declared false in 1995 by Williams College President Harry C. Payne. Moore died two years after Amherst was founded, and was succeeded by Heman Humphrey, a trustee of Williams College. His departure from Williams established the foundation for the intense Williams-Amherst rivalry that persists to the present. To this day, he is regarded with a measure of derision on the Williams campus.
Famous quotes containing the words swift and/or moore:
“The most positive men are the most credulous.”
—Jonathan Swift (1667–1745)
“The Minstrel Boy to the war is gone
In the ranks of death you’ll find him,
His father’s sword he has girded on,
And his wild harp slung behind him.”
—Thomas Moore (1779–1852)