He was educated in public schools of Elmira and Ithaca, New York.
Turnbull attended Cornell University, where he played college football as an end in 1901.
He earned a medical degree from the University of Buffalo in 1904 and practiced medicine in Elmira.
Turnbull served in the United States Army during World War I as a major and chief surgeon of the 107th Infantry Regiment in France.
This biographical article relating to a college football coach first appointed in the 1900s is a stub.