Dave is a retired history teacher from Temecula, California. His pop was a self-taught assembler computer programmer in Silicon Valley before it was called Silicon Valley. Because the breadwinner of the family was in a technical trade, the family moved often. Consequently, Dave grew up in towns all up and down California.
 
From 1984 to 1985, Dave lived at a boarding school in Norway, Danvik folkehøgskole. Upon returning to the United States, he earned a BA in Comparative Literature from California State University, Fullerton. Wanting a career as a technical writer, he completed a vocational program in information systems at Santa Ana College. Technical writing was not to be. He worked in retail management for over a decade before returning to graduate school.
 
In 1991, Dave heeded the call to become a teacher. Dave now holds an MS in Special Education from National University, La Jolla. His thesis centered on the benefit of class size reduction to special needs students.
 
Dave met his future wife, Durga Maya Bhattachan, at Terra Cotta Middle School in Lake Elsinore, California. In 2018, he and his wife retired. They traveled North America in an RV a few months each year, visited other parts of the world and stayed in Nepal with Maya's mother. They traveled slowly. Doing so allowed them to participate in local doings and establish meaningful relationships.
 
After a conversation with Narayan Baral in 2019, they embarked on their kindness journey.
 
A typical week for Dave includes dancing, eating his wife's incredible food, kindness club work and a few games of chess.