Dennis Fleet Keel was born on March 17, 1890, in Farmville, North Carolina. Keel was a dental surgeon in the Scotland Neck community of Halifax County when he registered for the draft (World War I) in June 1917. He was subsequently inducted into the service in July 1918 and served with the Medical Department of the army at Camps Greenleaf and Sevier until honorably discharged on January 31, 1919. Keel died in Norfolk, Virginia, on August 19, 1941.