John Milton Yinger, a member of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Oberlin College from 1947 to 1987, was born in Quincy, Michigan in 1916 to Emma May Bancroft (d. 1960) and George Daniel Yinger (d. 1934), both Methodist ministers. His mother was among the first women to be ordained in the Methodist church. He received his B.A. degree from DePauw University in 1937, his M.A. degree from Louisiana State University in 1939, and his Ph.D. degree from the University of Wisconsin in 1943. On July 20, 1941, he married Winnie G. McHenry (1919-2002). This union produced three children: Susan (b. 1945), John (b. 1947), and Nancy (b. 1952).

From 1941 to 1947, Yinger taught sociology at Ohio Wesleyan University. In 1947, he was appointed Associate Professor of Sociology and Anthropology at Oberlin College, rising to the rank of Professor in 1952. At Oberlin he taught specialty courses in “Race Relations,” “Society, Culture and Personality,” “Sociology of Religion,” “Methods of Research,” and others. He served as department chairman from 1969 to 1975. In 1971, Yinger was elected Secretary of the American Sociological Association and A.S.A. President in 1976. His numerous academic honors include fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation (1968-69), the National Endowment for the Humanities (1976-77), and the East-West Center, Honolulu (1968-69). In 1976, he was a visiting fellow at Clare Hall, Cambridge University where he worked on British materials. Prior to his retirement in 1987, Yinger was elected to honorary membership in Phi Beta Kappa. Also, he received honorary degrees from DePauw, 1982 and Syracuse, 1996.

Yinger's scholarly achievements are broad and significant. His research and publications range over several disciplines, including the sociology of religion, race relations, and educational sociology. His book Religion, Society, and the Individual (Macmillan, 1957) was translated into Italian in 1961, French in 1964, and Spanish in 1968. Other translations include A Minority Group in American Society (McGraw-Hill, 1968) into Spanish, Orissa, and Portuguese; The Scientific Study of Religion (Macmillan, 1970) into Japanese in 1990; and, Countercultures (Free Press, 19820) into Chinese in 1995. Yinger and his Oberlin colleague George E. Simpson (d. 1998) co-authored Racial and Cultural Minorities: An Analysis of Prejudice and Discrimination (Harper Brothers, 1953), a modern classic now in its fifth edition. In 1958, Yinger and Simpson received the Anisfield-Wolf Award for the best scholarly work on race relations. The Oberlin authors shared the award with Martin Luther King, Jr.

Five years of research among disadvantaged adolescents attending the Special Educational Opportunities Program at Oberlin College culminated in the publication of Middle Start: An Experimental Study of Educational Enrichment in Early Adolescence (Cambridge University Press, 1977), a joint study with Oberlin faculty Kiyoshi Ikeda, Frank Laycock, and Stephen Cutler. Yinger served on the Editorial Board of three professional journals: The American Sociological Review, Social Problems, and the Journal of Conflict Resolution.

As Emeritus Professor, Yinger continued to lend his insight and expertise to Oberlin College, serving on the Dean's Research Group on Black Student Progress (1986-87) and on the Archives Advisory Committee (1989-95). He co-authored in 1987 The Costs of Housing Discrimination and Segregation: An Interdisciplinary Social Science Statement, a landmark report about how racial ghettos became a structural feature of American urban society. In 1994 he authored Ethnicity: Source of Strength? Source of Conflict? During the 1996 Commencement–Reunion Weekend, he presented a talk entitled "Along Many Paths—To a Common Destination" to the Friends of the Oberlin College Library. A number of other articles were published over the years 1999 to 2003.

In December 1993 Emeritus Professor Yinger and his wife Winnie moved to the Kendal Community in Oberlin. In retirement, in addition to his scholarly pursuits, Yinger enjoys playing tennis, bridge, and listening to classical and religious music. Mrs. Winnie McHenry Yinger died on December 22, 2002.