Bob "Doc" Ridley
Marriages
Velma Hollyfield
Obituaries
Grand Junction Daily Sentinel page 3D Obituary - April 30, 2017
Bob “Doc” Ridley hated to
stand still. He was a man that
yearned for variety, and he
lived his life eager to race
from one experience to the
next. Born in Grand Junction,
Colorado, he was filled with
the spirit of a Westerner that
instilled in him a boldness and
restlessness to make his way
in the world on his own terms.
His early years were spent at the family home learning to milk
a cranky goat and riding a Shetland pony that greatly objected to
being ridden. His saving grace growing up among the barnyard
chaos was hanging out with his kid sister, Janet. Though the
years would put more and more miles between them, he always
beamed with pride when he spoke of his little sister.
His romantic interests began and ended with the girl that
worked the soda fountain at the drug store in Grand Junction.
Velma Hollyfield resisted his remarkably dazzling and awkward
charm offensive for a short while but eventually fell for his
bespectacled good-looks and quick wit. After Doc returned from
Colorado College in 1949, having pursued a degree in pre-law,
he asked for Velma’s hand, and the two began their 62-year
journey together.
Their first stop together as a married couple landed them in
Los Angeles, California where Doc got his degree in Optometry
from the Los Angeles College of Optometry in 1952. From
there, he joined the Army and served as a Medic during the
Korean War, stationed at Fort Picket, Virginia and Frankfurt,
Germany.
1954 saw the end of his military career and the birth of his first
child, Karen. He supported his growing family by joining his
father’s (Wendell Ridley) Optometry practice in Alhambra,
California. Three years later, a calling to higher learning would
see him leave the practice to enroll at Los Angeles State
University where, by 1957, he had earned his Bachelor’s in
Zoology. Before his time on the West Coast was done, he and
Velma would add a second daughter named Robin to the family.
Bachelor’s degree in hand, he took his young family of four to
the Midwest and entered the prestigious University of Chicago
Medical School. Eventually, the Ridley’s would leave Chicago
with a degree in Medicine and a third daughter, Pamela.
After spending a year in an internship at the University of
Iowa, the Bluegrass State came calling. Doc served out his
Residency in Ophthalmology at the University of Louisville
from 1963-1966. Kentucky would also be the state where the
last Ridley child, Richard, was added to the family.
From 1967 - 1981, Doc moved his family from Louisville,
Kentucky to Grand Junction, Colorado to Sayre, Pennsylvania
to Canton, Illinois to Chattanooga, Tennessee where he joined
private practices and plied his trade. He spent some time in his
off-hours teaching at the Erlanger Hospital School of Nursing in
Chattanooga during this time. But, what he was really looking
for was a community with a small town feel that he could call
home and where he could start his own thriving practice.
In 1981, he found such a place in Tullahoma, Tennessee. It
would be the final stop in his long effort to carve out his own
successful practice and create a legacy that would outlive him.
While he built his practice, he still felt a bit antsy, so he joined
the Army Reserve and served in the Medical Unit out of
Chattanooga from 1983-1985.
In 1986, he commissioned a building for his practice, and twoyears
later, he brought on Ben Mahan, M.D. to join the practice
and found his closest friend in the process, a man Doc would
entrust his practice to when he retired in 2011 at age 81. In
retirement, he would earn a Bachelor’s in Accounting from St.
Leo University.
Doc Ridley passed away on Sunday, February 12, 2017,
leaving behind family, friends and a community better off
having known and loved him.
A well-attended celebration of his life took place Saturday,
February 18, 2017, at the Tullahoma Fine Arts Center in
Tullahoma, Tennessee. Friends and family shared laughs, tears,
and wine as they bid Doc a fond farewell.
