He spent his college summers as a mule packer and crew chief fighting forest fires at Glacier, Crater Lake, and Grand Canyon National Parks [2] Newell earned his MA degree at Duke University in American history with a divinity school minor.

[citation needed] In 1974, Newell joined the University of Utah faculty and shortly afterward was appointed dean of Liberal Education, a position he held for sixteen years.

Independently, he co-founded and co-taught the Venture Course in the Humanities for low-income adults in downtown Salt Lake City (a Clemente Course).

Their four children, Christine Louise, Jennifer Ellen, Eric Jackson, and Heather Ann, are all educators and public servants.

[19] A second autobiographical essay in his "En Route" series, about his evolving philosophy of education, was published in Contemporary Philosophical Proposals for the University in 2018.

In 2020, the University of Utah Honors College launched the annual L. Jackson Newell Lecture in the Liberal Arts and Sciences.