Who was R. Frank Nims?
By Robert Brantley

Posted: 4:49p.m .est, October 08, 2006
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Undated photo of Robert Frank Nims
Robert Frank Nims (left) with classmates

R. Frank Nims Middle School was established in 1960 as a junior high school. The school was named after the late Robert Frank Nims, former principal of the original Lincoln High School in Tallahassee. Nims was born into one of the few established Black families in Tallahassee. His father owned a local meat market in French Town and his mother worked as a school teacher. They were both supportive and instrumental in his educational success. Nims was affectionately known as “Frank” by family and friends. As a young boy, he would help out in the meat market after school. Nims later attended Florida A&M High School and graduated from Florida A&M University. His wife was a superintendent at Bethel A.M.E. Church. They had no children.

As principal, Nims was known as a tough but fair man who always thought of his students first. “He would do anything he could to help you if you needed anything. He was there to bend over backwards to help you,” said Devurn Glenn, the first principal at Robert Frank Nims Middle School and Lincoln alum. “Although the original Lincoln High School was a segregated school, many of its former graduates felt that their school was a step above the other schools because of leaders like Frank Nims,” said James R. Ford, a friend and colleague of Nims. Ford is also the first black mayor of Tallahassee. “He was very dedicated to his job, he was always the first to arrive and the last to leave,” said Nick Nims, cousin of Robert Frank Nims and the first African American principal at Fairview Middle School. “I remember him as a people person. He was a good educator. He never kicked kids out of school the way they get kicked out of schools today.

He would put you on a work detail, that included raking the yard or picking up leaves. He would have you work so hard that you never wanted to get into trouble again,” said Retired Air Force Master Sergeant, Jimmy Charlton. Robert Frank Nims suffered a fatal heart attack late one evening at home in the mid- 1950’s. It was because of his dedication and innovation as an outstanding educator that Robert Frank Nims garnered the respect of his peers, including then Leon County Schools Superintendent, Amos P. Godby.

When a new school was to be dedicated in the African American community in 1960, a unanimous decision was made to name that school after one of Tallahassee’s most respected sons, Robert Frank Nims. Nims is buried in the historical Greenwood Cemetery on Old Bainbridge Road.