FedEx founder Fred Smith, a Marine Corps veteran who revolutionized
package delivery, dies at 80
[June 23, 2025] MEMPHIS,
Tenn. (AP) — Fred Smith, the FedEx Corp. founder who revolutionized the
express delivery industry, has died, the company said. He was 80.
FedEx started operating in 1973, delivering small parcels and documents
more quickly than the postal service. Over the next half-century, Smith,
a Marine Corps veteran, oversaw the growth of a company that became
something of an economic bellwether because so many other companies rely
on it.
Memphis, Tennessee-based FedEx became a global transportation and
logistics company that averages 17 million shipments per business day.
Smith stepped down as CEO in 2022 but remained executive chairman.
Smith, a 1966 graduate of Yale University, used a business theory he
came up with in college to create a delivery system based on coordinated
air cargo flights centered on a main hub, a "hub and spokes" system, as
it became known.
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."
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Frederick W. Smith, Chairman, President and CEO of FedEx Corporation
is seen before the first half of an NFL football game between the
Atlanta Falcons and the Philadelphia Eagles, Sunday, Sept. 12, 2021,
in Atlanta. (AP Photo/John Bazemore, File)
 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.”
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