[3] He attended Foothill Aurora High School in Bakersfield, California,[4] and he married Lynn Erville Baker, an ordained Baptist Minister, on Nov. 24, 1978 in Nobles County, Minnesota.

[6][1] Dooley's first academic appointment was as an instructor of chemistry at Amherst College in 1978, where he remained until 1993 when he assumed his position as head of the department of chemistry and biochemistry at Montana State University.

[6] In 1993, he joined the faculty of Montana State University as the chairperson of the department of chemistry and biochemistry.

[7] Throughout his career as an administrator at both MSU and URI, he maintained his research program as an active scientist.

Upon the Dooley's retirement from the University of Rhode Island, the University of Rhode Island Board of Trustees approved naming of the President David M. Dooley Science Quadrangle in his honor.