David Packard

Packard was born in Pueblo, Colorado, the son of Ella (Graber) and Sperry Sidney Packard, an attorney. He attended Centennial High School, where he early on exhibited interest in science, engineering, sports, and leadership. Packard earned his B.A. from Stanford University in 1934, as well as letters in football and basketball. He was also a member of the Phi Beta Kappa society and the Alpha Delta Phi Literary Fraternity. Packard also met his future wife Lucile Salter at Stanford, in addition to Bill Hewlett. Packard briefly attended the University of Colorado at Boulder before taking a position with the General Electric Company in Schenectady, New York. In 1938, he returned to Stanford, where he earned a master's degree in electrical engineering later that year. In the same year, he married Lucile Salter, with whom he had four children: David, Nancy, Susan, and Julie. Lucile Packard died in 1987 (age 72).

From the early 1980s until his death in 1996, Packard dedicated much of his time and money to philanthropic projects. In 1964, Packard and his wife had established the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. In 1986, they donated $40 million toward building what became the Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford University; the new hospital opened in June 1991. Prompted by his daughters Nancy and Julie, in 1978 David and Lucile had created the Monterey Bay Aquarium Foundation. The couple eventually donated $55 million to build the new aquarium, which opened in 1984 with Julie Packard as its executive director. In 1987, Packard gave $13 million to create the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute. Packard and Hewlett made a combined donation of $77 million to Stanford in 1994, for which the university named the David Packard Electrical Engineering Building in his honor.

Packard was a member of the American Enterprise Institute's board of trustees. He died on March 26, 1996, at age 83 in Stanford, California, leaving approximately $4 billion (the bulk of his estate) to the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, including large amounts of valuable real property in Los Altos Hills. All three Packard daughters sit on the foundation's board of trustees. David Woodley Packard, his son, serves as president of the Packard Humanities Institute.

As of 2025, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation has provided $1.2 billion to ocean research and is the leading private benefactor globally.