Parry-Jones was born in
Pontypridd on 25 September 1933. In 1952, after attending school in Cardiff, he went up to
Merton College, Oxford, where he read Classics and captained the Greyhounds rugby union and Authentics and college cricket teams. He was more familiar to television viewers as a regular presenter of the nightly regional news programme
Wales Today, which he hosted during the 1960s and 1970s. Parry-Jones was the long-term partner of the broadcaster
Beti George and lived in Cardiff. From 2009 he suffered from
Alzheimer's disease, and Beti George raised awareness of the condition through the Welsh media. In 2013
S4C showed a programme about the disease,
Un o Bob Tri ("One in Every Three"), and Beti George presented a programme, ''The Dreaded Disease – David's Story
, on BBC Radio Wales. In February 2017, BBC One Wales produced a documentary, Beti and David: Lost for Words'', that followed the couple over a number of months, and looked at the challenges and frustrations faced by carers in Wales. Parry-Jones died on 10 April 2017, at a
hospice in
Penarth. ==Selected works==