Sewell was born on November 27, 1909, in
Perrinton, Michigan. He attended
Michigan State University, where he received his
BA in 1933 and his
MA in 1934, both in
sociology. He then attended the
University of Minnesota, where he received his
Ph.D. in sociology in 1939 with a dissertation supervised by
F. Stuart Chapin. He briefly taught at Michigan State and
Oklahoma State before he became a professor of sociology at the
University of Wisconsin in 1946, where he became the chancellor in 1967. Sewell was known for his research in the sociology of inequality, especially in schooling, as well as his empirical approach to sociology. Sewell became chancellor of the Madison campus in 1967, in the midst of the
Vietnam War and student
protests. After a tough year due to the protesting, in June 1968, he resigned as chancellor and returned to research and teaching. In 1971 Sewell served as president of the
American Sociological Association. He was elected to the United States
National Academy of Sciences in 1976 and the
American Philosophical Society in 1979. ==Personal life==