James Rowland Angell was born in Burlington, Vermont, on May 8, 1869. Shortly afterwards his family moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan, where his father, James Burrill Angell, became President of the University of Michigan. As a young boy he accompanied his father on a trip around the world and spent a year and a half in China. James was the youngest of three children; his sister, Lois, was six years his senior and his brother, Alexis, twelve.

After graduating from the Ann Arbor public schools in 1886, he entered the University of Michigan where he received his A.B. degree in 1890. Although during his freshman year he followed the classical course, as an upperclassman he elected work in philosophy and psychology. He continued these studies as a graduate student at the University of Michigan and, under the guidance of John Dewey, received his M.A. degree with philosophy as a major and economics and American history as minors. In 1891 he left Michigan to work under William James at Harvard. He went to Germany the following year where he studied at the universities of Berlin and Halle and completed a Ph.D. thesis in German on Kant. Before receiving his degree, Mr. Angell returned to the United States to assume a teaching position at the University of Minnesota. His teaching career was continued at the University of Chicago where, in 1904, he was promoted to a professorship in experimental psychology. In 1911 he became Dean of the Faculties and, after a brief period in Washington during World War I, became Acting President of the University of Chicago. At the end of the war, he was elected to membership in the National Academy of Sciences and was appointed Chairman of the National Research Council. He was invited to become President of the Carnegie Corporation in 1920. Mr. Angell was also editor of Psychological Monographs from 1912 to 1922.

When the Yale Corporation approached him with the offer of the Yale Presidency in 1921, they broke a two century tradition of selecting only Yale graduates for that office. During the sixteen years of Angell's Presidency, the Yale School of Nursing, the Department of Drama, the Institute of Human Relations, the Yale Observatory at Johannesburg, and many important professorships came into being. Under the direction of his shrewd business judgement, the university endowment funds increased fourfold and building programs affecting Yale's library, gym, art gallery, law school and medical school were undertaken. Angell's years as Yale's President were outstanding for their educational leadership as well as their able administration.

After retiring from Yale in 1937, Mr. Angell became educational consultant for the National Broadcasting Company. In the years which followed he continued his interest in Yale, became a trustee of the American Museum of Natural History and, after 1944, a director of the Hall of Fame.

During his career as educator and psychologist, Mr. Angell was active in numerous organizations, wrote several books and received many awards. His membership in associations included the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Psychological Association, the American Philosophical Society, the National Academy of Science, the English-Speaking Union, Phi Beta Kappa, Delta Kappa Epsilon and Kappa Delta Pi. Psychology, his first book, was followed by Chapters in Modern Psychology in 1911, Introduction to Psychology in 1913 and American Education in 1937. Mr. Angell also wrote many articles in scientific journals. Among the honors he received were the French Legion of Honor and the Grand Officer of the Order of the Crown of Italy.

James Rowland Angell married Marion Isabel Watrous in 1894. Their son, James Waterhouse Angell, is a noted economist, and their daughter, Marion, the former wife of William Rockefeller McAlpin. After Mrs. Angell's death in 1931, Mr. Angell was married to Katherine Cramer Woodman. They resided at 155 Blake Road, Hamden, Connecticut, until Mr. Angell's death in 1949.