Bard are known as "the Bard of Avon" (often simply "the Bard") and "the Bard of Bengal" respectively. The word is a Celtic loan word from Scottish Gaelic "bàrd", Irish "bard", Welsh "bardd". In 16th-century Scotland, it was a derogatory term for an itinerant musician; nonetheless it was later romanticised by Sir Walter Scott. In medieval Gaelic and Welsh society, a "bard" (Scottish and Irish Gaelic) or "bardd" (Welsh) was a professional poet, employed to compose eulogies for his lord (see planxty). If the employer failed to pay the proper amount, the bard would then compose a satire (c.f. "fili", "fáith").
John Bard Bard died in 1875. John Bard died in 1899 but remained involved with the institutions he helped found until his death. He is buried in the Bard cemetery. St. Stephen's College officially changed its name to Bard College in 1934 in honor of its founder. John Bard John Bard (1819-1899) was a Christian philanthropist. He and his wife, Margaret Johnston, founded Bard College in New York, which was then known as St. Stephen's College, in order to train Episcopal Church ministers. John Bard was born in Hyde Park, New York in 1819 as the eleventh of fourteen children. Bard was