Bachelors Degree in Anthropology and Sociology from University of Wisconsin.

Ph.D from Northwestern University.

Writings of Donald R. Bender:

• 1969: "The development of French anthropology." Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences.

• 1967: "A refinement of the concept of Household: Families, co-residence, and domestic functions." American Anthropologist 69: 493 - 504

• 1969: "Review of Hill Farmers of Nigeria; Cultural Ecology of the Kafyar of the Jus Plateau," by R.M. Netting. American Anthropologist 71: 1186 - 1188

• 1970: "Agnatic or Cognatic? A re-evaluation of Ondo descent." Man 5: 71 - 87