John Bard was an American philanthropist who, along with his wife, Margaret Taylor Johnston, founded Bard College in New York, which was then known as St. Stephen's College, in order to train Episcopal Church ministers.

Bard College is a private liberal arts college in the hamlet of Annandale-on-Hudson, in the town of Red Hook, in New York State. The campus overlooks the Hudson River and Catskill Mountains within the Hudson River Historic District—a National Historic Landmark.