David Van Vactor was born to Daniel Ellsworth and Mathilda (Fenstermacher) Van Vactor in Plymouth, Indiana on May 8, 1906. He completed three years of pre-medical education at Northwestern University before transferring to the School of Music, where he earned his BA (1928) and MA (1935) degrees. Additionally, he studied with several prominent musicians in the Chicago area, at the Wiener Akademie in Austria (1939), and at L'Ecole Normale in Paris (1931). Van Vactor began his professional music career as a flutist with the Chicago Symphony, where he remained for thirteen years. During this time, he also began conducting. He served as the Symphony's Assistant Conductor in 1933 and 1934 and earned the Frederick Stock Scholarship in conducting in 1939, after which time Stock mentored him until his (Stock's) death in 1942.

In 1943, Van Vactor moved to Kansas City, where he worked as the assistant conductor of the Kansas City Philharmonic Orchestra and as the Head of the Department of Theory and Composition in the Conservatory of Music. Van Vactor also undertook several tours to South America with the sponsorship of United States Department of State and the League of Composers during this time. He made one tour as part of a woodwind quintet (1941) and two others as the visiting conductor of the Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and Santiago, Chile Orchestras. He also served as a visiting professor at Chile University, where he had a profound impact on many young composers.

Van Vactor came to Knoxville in 1947 to conduct the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra. He remained at this post until his retirement 25 years later. He also founded the University of Tennessee's Fine Arts Department (now the School of Music) where he taught until 1976. Van Vactor died in Los Angeles, California on March 24, 1994. He was survived by his wife, Virginia (Landreth) Van Vactor (1911-1995), and two children, Raven Harwood (nee Adriaen Virginia; 1933-1994) and David Landreth Van Vactor.