Donald Wexler was born on 23 January 1926 in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, USA. He was married to Nancy Lou Unterman and Marilynn Dawn Maidman. He died on 26 June 2015 in Palm Desert, California, USA.
After serving in the Navy during WWII, he attended the University of Minnesota, but wasn't sure about a major. An aptitude test pointed him toward architecture, and he graduated in 1950.