David was educated in the Midwest, earning his B.S. and M.S. degrees from Iowa State University and his Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Minnesota.

In 1960, he joined the faculty of the University of Minnesota, rising to full Professor in eight years. During that period, he co-authored the widely used Strong-Campbell Interest Inventory.

In 1973, he was a Visiting Fellow at the Center for Creative Leadership in Greensboro, North Carolina and then joined the Center as Executive Vice-President. In 1981, he was appointed as the first Smith-Richardson Senior Fellow.

In 1979, he was an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of London and, in 1986-87, he was a Distinguished Visiting Professor at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. David spent the spring semester of 2006 as the Hellervik/PDI Visiting Professor in Adult Career Development at the University of Minnesota.

His lecturing and professional activities have taken him to dozens of U.S. corporations and universities, and to many foreign countries, notably Russia, China, Peru, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, the Phillipines, and much of Western Europe.

David has recently published a new psychological test battery, the Campbell Development Surveys, which includes individual surveys designed to analyze working interests, skills, leadership potential, teamwork, and working satisfaction.

His honors include the E.K. Strong, Jr. Gold Medal for excellence in psychological testing research. In 1998, the University of Colorado awarded him an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters. He also received the 2001 Distinguished Professional Contributions Award from the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology.

In 2006, David was named the Society for Psychologists in Management's Distinguished Psychologist in Management for 2006. He received the award in early March at SPIM's annual conference in San Francisco.

David is perhaps best known for his popular books:
            If You Don’t Know Where You Are Going, You Will Probably End Up Somewhere Else
            Take the Road to Creativity and Get Off Your Dead End
            If I am in Charge Here, Why is Everybody Laughing?

He is an avid photographer and skier and likes to play squash.