Like Dobbs, Ripley suffers from alopecia, an autoimmune disease that results in the loss of hair on the scalp and elsewhere on the body. Ripley also is a big Vols fans, and recently wrote Dobbs saying it was her dream to meet him.
Dobbs wrote back with words of encouragement. “I do not worry if other people make fun of me because having alopecia is something I can’t control,” he told her. Then, Dobbs went a step further, inviting Ripley — who is from Morristown, Tenn., a town of about 30,000 that is 50 miles northeast of Knoxville — to campus to meet him and tour the facilities.