David Coory was born in Wellington, New Zealand in 1946 to a father of Christian Lebanese descent and a mother of Scottish/Welsh ancestry. His family then moved to the West Coast of the South Island where he spent his childhood. The family later returned to the Wellington area and David attended St Bernard's Catholic College in Lower Hutt.
David's first jobs were office administration positions in a women's clothing manufacturing factory, and then in the photographic and automotive industries. In his early 20's, after marrying Marie Pearson a young woman of Swedish/English descent, he became a self-employed car painter/renovator specialising in complete repaints. Despite his manual work career David always remained a life-long avid reader of non-fiction and fine literature.
David eventually became bored with car painting and closed his car painting business, sold the land and buildings and became involved in property development. However he did not find this spiritually satisfying and so wrote and published a book called "Spraypainting and Panelbeating for the NZ Home Handyman." This book sold well, as cars, during the 1980's were expensive in New Zealand and prone to rust. The book sold 16,000 copies and was followed up with a 2 hour VHS video by the same name. Later it was converted to DVD.
Around this same time, in 1982 when David was 35, his 66 year old father had a serious heart attack. His dad did not die (he lived to be 96) but this was a health wake up call for David and sparked a growing interest in natural health.
He researched natural health voraciously over the next five years, also experimenting with his own health. And in 1988 he wrote and published a do-it-yourself book on practical nutrition called "NZ Nutrition and Your Health". This book instantly sold amazingly well, as it was timely and easy to follow. Ideas for further improvement of the book flowed in from readers and the next edition was republished as "Stay Healthy by Supplying What's Lacking in Your Diet". The book has continued to sell strongly, year after year, mostly by direct mail through a publishing company Zealand Publishing House that David founded. Sales of the book now exceed 80,000 copies. It is by far the top selling New Zealand health book of all time and a new expanded 9th edition was published in 2013 after years of further research.
David appears to have inherited his passion for writing and research from his Lebanese forefathers. His grandfather Joseph Coory attended school in Becharre (in the mountains of Lebanon) with the world-famous Christian Lebanese writer Kahlil Gibran (author of "The Prophet"). His influence appears to have inspired the Coory family with a love of literature.
David still lives in Tauranga, New Zealand with his wife, children and grand children and is still actively involved in his faith and businesses.