Fred Smith, a business visionary responsible for creating one of America’s most ubiquitous corporate enterprises back in the 1970s, has passed away at the age of 80.
As the New York Post reports, the death of Smith, the founder and former CEO of FedEx, was announced over the weekend.
The news was revealed in a memo posted on the company’s website by current CEO Raj Subramaniam.
While an undergraduate student at Yale University, Smith concluded while writing a paper for a business course that the burgeoning computer industry would spur the need for a nimble, reliable logistics and delivery system.
Seeing the potential for unlimited growth in this realm, Smith set about creating the shipping and delivery system that would become a household name, launching Federal Express in 1973.
Smith’s innovative idea relied on the notion that a hub-and-spoke network would be far more efficient than a point-to-point model.
For that, both airplanes as well as trucks would be necessary, and therefore, he would need to raise massive amounts of capital to get the network up and running, a challenge he accepted and at which he succeeded.
Though his new company ran at a loss for its first 26 months, Smith’s venture, now known as FedEx, boasts an estimated value of more than $16 billion.
The company operates a fleet of 705 airplanes, over 200,000 vehicles, and 5,000 facilities of its own.
Despite being the scion of a prominent and well-to-do southern family, as well as a graduate of an Ivy League University, Smith pointed to his military service as perhaps the greatest key to his success, as the Associated Press notes.
Smith joined the Marines after completing his studies at Yale.
He went into the service as a second lieutenant and left as a captain after two tours in Vietnam.
While in the Marines, Smith was decorated not just for his bravery but also for combat wounds sustained.
It was his time in the armed forces, Smith said to the AP in a 2023 interview, not his time at Yale, that fueled his success with FedEx.
His appreciation for the military was made evident by his recent gift to the Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation for the purpose of endowing a fund for the sons and daughters of Navy veterans pursuing STEM-related studies.
In informing FedEx staff of Smith’s passing, Subramaniam stated:
“Fred was more than just the pioneer of an industry and the founder of our great company.
“He was a mentor to many and a source of inspiration to all.”
Those sentiments were echoed by Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN), who declared:
“Memphis has lost its most important citizen, Fred Smith.
“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.”
It is a legacy of which any Tennessean or American would be proud.
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