David Sheppard attended Chowchilla Union High School in Chowchilla, California from Fall 1955 to Spring 1959. He graduated in June 1959. He had a college preparatory major. He took mostly science classes, including, electricity, chemistry, and physics. He took two years of algebra and one of geometry.

Though he wanted to go to college, he never applied himself and graduated in the lower quarter of his graduating class. The following fall he enrolled in Bakersfield College, a two-year, community college, to build up his academic standing.