David Patrick Browne was born July 29, 1973 in Evergreen Park, Illinois. He was the second of two sons born to Patrick and Susan Browne. He grew up in Oak Lawn, Illinois and graduated from Oak Lawn Community High School in 1991.

Family camping vacations, especially one to the Grand Canyon and Mesa Verde, with his parents and older brother Michael, may have been the beginning of his interest in archaeology. That interest led him to Beloit College in Beloit, Wisconsin where he was awarded a four year Presidential scholarship. Dave graduated from Beloit College in 1995 with a Bachelor of Arts degree, majoring in anthropology and political science.

While in college he worked summers for the Oak Lawn Park District and after graduation, briefly for United Parcel Service. He also did volunteer work for the Newberry Library D'Arcy McNickle Center for American Indian History in Chicago.

In spring 1997 Dave began doing archaeological field work for the Institute for Minnesota Archaeological Consulting on a pipeline project in Illinois and Wisconsin. That fall he did the same type of work for a Pennsylvania company, KCI Technologies, on a highway project and at the end of 1997 was employed by NES of Cincinnati, Ohio for an archaeological survey project in Pennsylvania.

Just days before he was to begin a second season of archaeological survey field work in March 1998, Dave went to Peoria, Illinois for a weekend visit with friends. He had never exhibited any sign of health problems, but it was there that he died very suddenly and unexpectedly of congenital heart disease which had never been detected. He was only 24 years old.