Donald W. Schank was born on October 27, 1950. and adopted by Mr. and Mrs. Harold Schank of Freehold, NJ.  At and early age he became interested in art and was encouraged by his parents.  He attended Western Maryland College (McDaniel College) where he majored in math but switched to a double major of Art and English.  Mr. Schank left College in 1971 but returned and received his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1974. It was after he returned to Western Maryland College that Mr. Schank became interested in music and learned to play bass, guitar, and keyboards. After college he played for small rock bands for over ten years.

By the early 1980s he began to move away from music and put his energies into drawing and illustrating and his writing.  He also discovered the genre small press, and published hundreds of illustrations and poems in various small science fiction, fantasy, horror, and other magazines and books. He illustrated books by  authors  Brian A. Hopkins, Brian Lumley, and Mike Resnick.

In the 1970s he moved back to New Jersey where he met and married his second wife, an art teacher.  He retired in 2000. He and his wife and daughter live in New Jersey.