His family moved to Grand Junction in 1908.[6] He was proud of his paternal ancestor, a Swiss immigrant named Jacob Trumbo, who settled in the colony of Virginia in 1736.[7] Trumbo graduated from Grand Junction High School. While still in high school, he worked as a cub reporter for the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel, covering courts, the high school, the mortuary and civic organizations. He attended the University of Colorado at Boulder for two years, working as a reporter for the Boulder Daily Camera and contributing to the campus humor magazine, the yearbook and the campus newspaper.