David H. French was born in Bend, Oregon on May 21, 1918, he attended Reed College in 1935- 38, transferring to Pomona College, from which he graduated in 1939. He earned an M.A. in 1940 from the Claremont Graduate School and a Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1949, both degrees in anthropology.

He married Kathrine McCulloch Story in 1943. He and Kathrine conducted much of their research together. His early research interests included American Indian mythology and Pueblo Indians. From 1943-46, French was a community analyst with the War Relocation Authority, documenting the Japanese-American community at Poston, Arizona. He joined the Reed faculty in anthropology in 1947 and remained until his retirement in 1988, with the exception of one year spent at Columbia University and another at Harvard University as visiting faculty. He was the author of many articles published in various scholarly journals. He was a member of many professional organizations; he served on the executive board, and as representative to the American Association for the Advancement of Science, for the American Anthropological Association, which gave him a Distinguished Service Award in 1988. Both French's mother, Evelyn Fatland French, and his father, Delbert R. French, were members of Reed College’s first graduating class in 1915.

David H. French, emeritus professor of anthropology at Reed College, died of a heart attack on February 12, 1994 in a Portland hospital.

Kathrine (Kay) McCullough Story French was born June 5, 1922 in Champaign, Illinois. She was the only child of Russell M. and Gertrude A. Story. She received her Bachelor of Arts in 1942, and her Ph.D. in Anthropology in 1955 at Columbia University. She conducted long-term research at the Warm Springs Reservation along with her husband, David French, as well as work at OHSU studying various aspects of health care. She died of pneumonia in Portland, Oregon on June 13, 2006.