Rowell studied pharmacy at the University of Minnesota, was Class President 1926-27; upon graduation in 1928, he returned to Baudette and opened a drugstore. His father Joe, who continued in commercial fishing, also raised blue foxes for their fur. When fur buyers commented on the quality of his foxes' furs, Joe figured it was in the food they were fed, a diet consisting primarily of burbot. The only fresh-water relative of the cod, the fish had no market value, but came up in his nets and were fed to the foxes.