Born on May 21, 1908 on a farm in the Santa Clara Valley into a pioneer California family. Don was a great-grandnephew of Robert Stockton for whom the city and street in San Francisco were named. As a young man he was apprenticed to cartoonist Jimmie Swinnerton who encouraged him to pursue an art career. He then studied at the CSFA. In 1927 he joined the staff of the San Francisco Examiner and drew a cartoon called "Hick Hayes." After WWII he drew a strip for the San Francisco Call-Bulletin called "Ginger Jones." Stockton died in Menlo Park, CA on July 11, 1990.