Contrary to what others here have said — Duke was not founded by James Buchanan Duke in 1924. It was founded as a Quaker school in the town of Wake Forest, NC in 1841 under the name Union Institute Academy.

In 1892, it moved to Durham, NC. At that time, it changed its name to Trinity College and changed its affiliation to Methodist. The move and name change were because Washington Duke gave them a large donation.

In 1924, J.B. Duke gave them a very large donation to honor his father. At that time, they changed the name of the school to Duke University — in honor of Washington Duke. There is a story that JB Duke offered the money to Princeton (his alma mater) if they agreed to change the name of the school — but that they turned him down. It is not true. Changing the name from Trinity to Duke was not a condition of getting the money.

The undergraduate liberal arts college is still called Trinity College.

Duke was not the only college founded in Wake Forest that moved elsewhere because of tobacco money. RJ Reynolds gave a lot of money to what is now Wake Forest University to entice them to move from Wake Forest (a suburb of Raleigh) to Winston-Salem.