Histories of Trenton Normal School and Successor Institutions

Don Carroll Bliss was born on March 9, 1868, to Harriett Prescott and Willis R. Bliss in Corinth, Vermont. He attended Thetford Academy; then Dartmouth College, graduating in 1892, earning a master's degree in 1894, and doctorate in 1913. In 1894, he married Frances Marian McConnell (1870-1953), and they had sons Don C. Bliss, Jr. (1897-1978), and Robert W. Bliss (1905-1928). Robert was a Normal School student who served as its Office Assistant in 1926, and Instructor in English beginning in 1927. Don C. Bliss’s career included a series of school superintendent positions: beginning in Northville, Michigan; then Kearny, New Jersey from 1900 to 1905; Brockton, Massachusetts from 1905 to 1910; Elmira, New York from 1910 to 1912; and Montclair, New Jersey from 1912 to 1923. In the fall of 1923, he became the Principal and first president of New Jersey State Teachers College and State Normal School at Trenton until his retirement in 1930. In 1935, Bliss Hall, a new men’s dormitory at Trenton State was dedicated to him. By 1940, he was living in Biloxi Mississippi, where he died on May 19, 1945, and was buried in Vermont.

Founded in 1855 as the New Jersey State Normal School, The College of New Jersey is the oldest teacher training college in the state and the ninth oldest in the nation. Originally located in downtown Trenton, the college expanded academically and physically, and later moved to suburban Ewing Township in the 1930s.

Over the years, the name of the college has changed to reflect its expanding mission.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    New New Jersey State Normal School,  1855-1908

New Jersey Normal School in Trenton, 1908-1929

New Jersey State Teachers College and State Normal School at Trenton, 1929-1937

New Jersey State Teachers College at Trenton, 1937-1958

Trenton State College, 1958-1996

The College of New Jersey, 1996-present