After teaching for one year at Clebarro College in Cleburne, Texas, he enrolled at Vanderbilt University, where he received an M.A.
[1][2] In 1917 he received a scholarship for doctoral study at the University of California, Berkeley.
In 1920, Rippy received his PhD under Herbert Eugene Bolton with thesis The relations of the United States and Mexico, 1848–1860.
Rippy was a visiting professor and guest lecturer at various colleges and universities throughout the U.S.A.
He and his wife Mary had children J. Fred Junior, Robert Allen, and Frazier Winston;[1] and several grandchildren.