His paternal grandfather was Samuel Bard, a prominent doctor who was a founder of Columbia University's medical school and physician to George Washington.

[7] Bard was a devout Christian and wanted to help improve the quality of life of the poor and to encourage more ministers to be trained.

In 1853, Bard and his wife, who held similar beliefs, purchased a part of the Blithewood estate from Robert Donaldson Jr. and renamed it Annandale.

[9] During this time, John Bard remained in close contact with the New York leaders of the Episcopal Church, the Rt.

[11] With the promise of outside financial support, John Bard donated the unfinished Chapel, and the surrounding 18 acres, to the diocese in November 1858.

In 1861, construction began on the first St. Stephen's College building, a stone collegiate Gothic dormitory called Aspinwall.

[15] In her will, she left all her personal property in trust for the benefit of her husband, with the income in an amount of $12,000 a year to be paid to him as administered by her trustees, brothers John Taylor Johnston and James Boorman Johnston and Stephen Van Rensselaer Cruger.