Born in Montreal, Quebec, the son of Louis-Athanase David and Antonia Nantel, he received his Bachelor's degree from the University of Paris in 1939 and his MD from the Université de Montréal in 1944. He specialized in cardiology in Boston at the Massachusetts General Hospital in 1946 and in Paris at the Hôpital Lareboisière in 1947. Upon his return to Montreal, he worked at the Notre-Dame Hospital. He founded the Montreal Heart Institute in 1954. It was under his direction that the first heart transplant ever performed in Canada was carried out at the Institute, in 1968.
In 1985, he was appointed to the Senate of Canada on the recommendation of Prime Minister Brian Mulroney. He sat as a Progressive Conservative senator representing the Senatorial division of Bedford, Quebec. He retired on his 75th birthday in 1994. His father, Louis-Athanase David and grandfather, Laurent-Olivier David were Liberal Senators. He is the younger brother of Simone David-Raymond founder of the Marie-Enfant Hospital.
