predecessor successor death_date birth_place death_place title birth_date term_start image article_title term_end name
ebenezer fitch edward dorr griffin heman humphrey 29 june 1823 palmer , massachusetts amherst , massachusetts president of williams college president of amherst college 20 november 1770 1815 1821 zephaniah swift moore.jpg zephaniah swift moore
 1821 1823 zephaniah swift moore
zephaniah swift moore

zephaniah swift moore -lrb- november 20 , 1770 -- june 29 , 1823 -rrb- 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 .
