Rider Business College
January 1901 – June 1901
Rider-Moore & Stewart Business Colleges
July 1901 – August 1920
Rider College
September 1920 – February 1934
A native of Clifton County, Ohio, Franklin Benjamin Moore accepted an invitation in 1898 from President Andrew J. Rider to join the faculty at Trenton Business College. Moore bought the school in December 1900. Later that year he merged the school with rival Stewart Business College to form Rider-Moore & Stewart Business College in partnership with John Gill. Moore became the school’s president.
Known as a quiet and reserved man, Moore devoted the bulk of his energies to his administrative responsibilities. Acknowledged as a pioneer in the development of the quarter system of education, he developed a plan that enabled students to attend class for just 48 weeks each year to complete a four-year program in only two or three calendar years.
During his time as president, the institution officially became known as Rider College upon its move to East State Street in Trenton in 1920. Two years later, Moore won permission from the New Jersey State Board of Education for Rider College to confer the degrees of Bachelor of Accounts and Bachelor of Commercial Science, the first collegiate degrees offered by the college.