He served as the chair of the English Department at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, for thirty years from 1912 to 1942, and he taught many members of the Fugitives and the Southern Agrarians, two literary movements in the South.
[3] The second Chancellor of Vanderbilt University, James Hampton Kirkland (1859–1939), convinced him to return to his alma mater to teach.
[3] Some of his students included Donald Davidson, Robert Penn Warren, Cleanth Brooks, Andrew Nelson Lytle, Allen Tate, Merrill Moore and Jesse Stuart.
[4][6][7] Stuart's Beyond Dark Hills, was the direct result of one of Mims's assignments (writing an autobiographical essay); it was published in 1938.
[4][8] However, Allen Tate tried to expose his hypocrisy as Mims assured Ransom he would be welcome to stay in his department at Vanderbilt.
[4] In June 1898, Mims married Clara Puryear, the daughter of a tobacco broker from Paducah, Kentucky.
[1][2] His funeral took place at the West End United Methodist Church on the edge of the Vanderbilt University campus, and he was buried at the Woodlawn Memorial Park in Nashville, Tennessee.
[1] A pair of statues representing Dismas and Lazarus in the foyer of the Benton Chapel on the campus of Vanderbilt University are dedicated in his honor.