David Oreck was born on September 17, 1923 in Duluth, Minnesota. Oreck had an early interest of engines and other electric devices and would use that interest to serve America during World War II. After the war he got a salesman job at RCA before he founded the Oreck Corporation in 1963 to sell vacuum cleaners by mail. He also appeared on infomercials selling his vacuum cleaners and air purifiers since the company started.
David Oreck had acquired an abandoned design for an abandoned vacuum cleaner design from Whirlpool and a failing RCA distribution facility in New Orleans, by which he created the Oreck XL upright vacuum cleaner.