Burl Francis Dewel was born in Burt, Iowa, on September 28, 1902, and graduated from Algona High School. He entered the State University of Iowa College of Dentistry in fall 1920 and received the D.D.S. degree in June 1925.

Dewel worked at SUI as a demonstrator, or teaching assistant, to the head of orthodontics, Dr. J. Elon Rose, from July 1925 through 1929. He began his private practice in orthodontia, which he maintained for fifty years, in Evanston, Illinois, in 1929. Dewel also taught part time at Northwestern University. He served on the American Board of Orthodontics and was editor-in-chief of the American Journal Of Orthodontics from 1969 to 1979. He established the first professorship in Dentistry at the University of Iowa in 1988 with a substantial gift. B. F. Dewel died on October 6, 1999 in Evanston, Illinois.

Dewel was one of several in his family with ties to the State University of Iowa. His father, William Cornelius Dewel, graduated from SUI in 1896 and was editor-in-chief of the Hawkeye class annual in 1895. Later, he was the editor and publisher of the Kossuth County Advance newspaper in Algona. Dewel's older brother, Duane, later became the editor and owner of the Advance. His youngest brother, Robert, graduated from the SUI College of Dentistry in 1942.