Newell Leroy Sims was born in Jamestown Township, Steuben County, Indiana on 3 December 1878. He was the son of Charles N. and Elizabeth McClew Sims, both listed as deceased by Professor Sims when he began his Oberlin career in 1924.

Sims entered Tri-State College, Angola, Indiana, in 1897 from which he graduated in 1901 (A.B.). During the next 15 years he served as a minister in city and rural parishes in Benton Harbor, Michigan, Carthage, Missouri, Scarsdale, New York, and Columbus, Ohio. He continued his education throughout these years, earning a second A.B. at the University of Kentucky (1905). He completed an M.A. (1910) and a Ph.D. degree (1912) in Sociology at Columbia University and also studied at Union Theological Seminary (1908-1913).

Prior to coming to Oberlin, Sims was professor and head of the Sociology and Political Science Department of the University of Florida,1915-1920, and at Massachusetts Agricultural College, 1920-1924. He taught summer sessions at Simmons College School of Social Work (1923), at Amherst College (1922), and at Smith College (1923). By the time he came to Oberlin in 1924, Sims was already recognized as a pioneer in American Sociology, highly regarded for his substantial work in rural sociology and social change. He was a professor in the Oberlin College Sociology Department from 1924 to 1944 (emeritus, 1944-1965).

Sims wrote many articles and books in his field, including his textbook Elements of Rural Sociology (1927) which was adopted as a text in many colleges and universities. Although he is more widely known for his published textbook and for his interest in rural sociology, Sims was a pioneer in taking up such topics as race problems and immigration in the making of American society.  He taught academic courses in these subjects as well as directed advanced students who cared to pursue sociological investigations in cultural and race issues.  This led him in 1939 to publish The Problem of Social Change.

He was prominent in many professional organizations, a member of the American Sociological Society, President of the Ohio Sociological Society, and a special advisor to the American Red Cross. Additionally, he served as an associate editor of the American Sociological Review.  In 1926 he was a delegate to the International Rural Life Congress in Brussels. He was a member of the American Social Science Committee delegation to the Soviet Union in 1931-32, and he led a European Seminar to study cooperatives in the Soviet Union in 1938.

Professor Sims married Florence Anna McNutt (b.1885) in Cincinnati, Ohio (n.d.). The couple had two children, Elizabeth Florence Sims (Mrs. James Tenure) and Joe R. Sims.

Professor Sims died in Oberlin at age 86 on 31 July, 1965. His wife died in the same year at age 80 on 30 September. They are buried in Westwood Cemetery in Oberlin. Both were members of First Church in Oberlin.

Faculty file of Newell L. Sims, Alumni and Development Records, RG 28.