David graduated from St. John's College in MN and received an MFA from the University of Iowa. He was a professor of painting, drawing and printmaking at Cuyahoga Community College in Cleveland for over 30 years.

A sophisticated and accomplished painter, Haberman has spent his long career perfecting a style of evocative abstraction. He paints spontaneously and intuitively, often following unexpected associations that emerge during the painting process. On occasion, these associations evoke the sense of landscapes and figures, sometimes with mysterious and erotic connotations, yet they remain essentially abstract.

Later his career, Haberman has moved from highly textured, violent surfaces toward a more spacious style of sensuous color and continuous movement. Painting with large brushes, pieces of cardboard, and other innovative techniques, he creates complexities of color and light. Surface rhythms flow through these monumental paintings, some over twelve feet long, unifying their compositions and thrusting their energy into surrounding space.

He is one of the founding members of the Artists Archives of the Western Reserve.