Kimball was raised in Farmington, Utah, until he was in junior high school when he moved to Denver, Colorado.
During World War II Kimball served briefly with the United States Army Air Forces at Sheppard Field, Texas.
When the missionaries were expelled from the country in 1950, he was relocated to England with Stayner Richards as his mission president.
He then went to Columbia University where he earned a Ph.D. in history, doing his dissertation on the Czech National Theatre in America.
[1] In 1959, Kimball settled in the St. Louis, Missouri area and began teaching at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (SIUE).