David Dexter Clarke was born in South Hadley, Massachusetts, in 1844. His family was descended from early New England settlers. In 1864, he left school to come to Oregon via the Isthmus of Panama. In the Pacific Northwest, he became involved in surveying and civil engineering, a profession he continued in for 53 years. He went to work for the City of Portland and Multnomah County surveyor when he reached Oregon. After that, he worked as a surveyor and engineer for the Oregon & California Railroad, the United States Surveyor General's Office in Olympia, the Northern Pacific Railroad, and the Tacoma Land Co. He operated his own contracting and engineering business, Clarke and Gray Co., in South Bend, Washington, from 1890 to 1893.

In 1893, he became an assistant to the chief engineer of the Portland, Oregon, water bureau. He became head of the department upon the death of the chief engineer in 1897, and he continued the construction and implementation of the Bull Run water system. He retired due to ill health in 1917.

Clarke married Sarah Eleanor Huntington of Olympia, Washington (then the Washington Territory) in 1875. They had five sons: William Dexter, Ralph Huntington, Irving, Alfred Henry, and Herbert Houghton. Clarke died in 1923.