David Park McAllester was raised in Everett, Massachusetts, the fourth child of a Boston Sunday columnist. As a child, he went for nature walks with his mother, and learned to identify animal tracks. He was also interested in music, and sang in a choir and took voice lessons with the intention of becoming a professional singer. In 1934, he attended Harvard University, where he studied southwestern ethnology and linguistics. In 1938, after graduating, he moved to New York City and attended the Julliard School. He also joined the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers). Finding that he was still interested in anthropology, in 1940 he enrolled in the Ph.D. program at Columbia University, where he studied Native American music. He also married Susan Watkins, whom he had met while singing in the Harvard Glee Club. When World War II began, McAllester registered as a conscientious objector and served with the Civilian Public Service. At the end of the war, he returned to Columbia University to continue his degree. In 1947, he accepted a position teaching Psychology and Biology at Wesleyan University in Connecticut while he continued to work on his degree. In 1950 he received a Ph.D. degree in Anthropology from Columbia University. In 1955 he cofounded the Society for Ethnomusicology with Alan Merriam, Willard Rhodes, and Charles Seeger. In 1956 he introduced courses in non-European folk music at Wesleyan University, and during the summers he did field work recording Native American music, especially on the Navajo reservation. In 1960 he was Carnegie visiting professor at the University of Hawaii. In 1967, Wesleyan established a department of Anthropology, and his recordings became part of its World Music Archives. In 1972 he was made professor of Anthropology and Music at Wesleyan. In 1986 he retired from teaching, and continued to write for the Society for Ethnomusicology and for his local newspaper.