Donald West was born on October 10, 1932, at the family home 319 South East 434 St,
Oklahoma City, where he lived until the family moved to Arkansas in 1949 because
his father, an oil derrick safety engineer, received a job transfer. Donald attended
Oklahoma City public schools; Shields Heights Elementary, Capitol Hill Junior High
and Capitol Hill High School, through the eleventh grade when the family moved
and he attended the most beautiful high school in America, Little Rock High School,
for his senior year.