FedEx Founder and Marine Corps Veteran Fred Smith, Who Transformed Package Shipping, Passes Away at 80, Company Reports

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Fred Smith, the FedEx Corp. founder who revolutionized the express delivery industry, has died, the company said. He was 80.

FedEx commenced its operations in 1973, focusing on delivering small packages and documents faster than traditional postal services. Over the following fifty years, Smith, a veteran of the Marine Corps, guided the expansion of the company, transforming it into an economic indicator due to its vast clientele base.

Originating from Memphis, Tennessee, FedEx evolved into a global force in transportation and logistics, handling an average of 17 million shipments every business day. Smith retired as CEO in 2022 but retained the role of executive chairman.

As a Yale University graduate in 1966, Smith applied a business concept he developed during his college days. This idea involved a delivery system that utilized coordinated air cargo routes focusing on a central hub, later known as the “hub and spokes” model.

The company also played a major role in the shift by American business and industry to a greater use of time-sensitive deliveries and less dependence on large inventories and warehouses.

Smith once told The Associated Press that he came up with the name Federal Express because he wanted the company to sound big and important when in fact it was a start-up operation with a future far from assured.

At the time, Smith was trying to land a major shipping contract with the Federal Reserve Bank that didn’t work out.

In the beginning, Federal Express had 14 small aircraft operating out of the Memphis International Airport flying packages to 25 U.S. cities.

Smith’s father, also named Frederick, built a small fortune in Memphis with a regional bus line and other business ventures. Following college, Smith joined the U.S. Marines and was commissioned a second lieutenant. He left the military as a captain in 1969 after two tours in Vietnam where he was decorated for bravery and wounds received in combat.

He told The Associated Press in a 2023 interview that everything he did running FedEx came from his experience in the Marines, not what he learned at Yale.

Getting Federal Express started was no easy task. Overnight shipments were new to American business and the company had to have a fleet of planes and a system of interconnecting air routes in place from the get-go.

Former President George W. Bush released a statement in which he praised Smith as “one of the finest Americans of our generation” and FedEx as an “innovative company that helped supercharge our economy.”

Smith was a minority owner of the Washington Commanders NFL team until 2021, when owner Daniel Snyder and his family bought out the shares held by Smith, Dwight Schar and Bob Rothman. His son Arthur was a head coach with the Atlanta Falcons for three seasons and is currently the offensive coordinator for the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Though one of Memphis’ best-known and most prominent citizens, Smith generally avoided the public spotlight, devoting his energies to work and family.

Despite his low profile, Smith made a cameo appearance in the 2000 movie “Castaway” starring Tom Hanks. The movie was about a FedEx employee stranded on an island.

“Memphis has lost its most important citizen, Fred Smith,” said U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen of Tennessee, citing Smith’s support for everything from the University of Memphis to the city’s zoo. “FedEx is the engine of our economy, and Fred Smith was its visionary founder. But more than that, he was a dedicated citizen who cared deeply about our city.”

Smith rarely publicized the donations he and his family made, but he agreed to speak with AP in 2023 about a gift to the Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation to endow a new scholarship fund for the children of Navy service members pursuing studies in STEM.

“The thing that’s interested me are the institutions and the causes not the naming or the recognition,” Smith said at the time.

Asked what it means to contribute to the public good, he replied:

“America is the most generous country in the world. It’s amazing the charitable contributions that Americans make every year. Everything from the smallest things to these massive health care initiatives and the Gates Foundation and everything in between,” he said. “I think if you’ve done well in this country, it’s pretty churlish for you not to at least be willing to give a pretty good portion of that back to the public interest. And all this is in the great tradition of American philanthropy.”