FedEx founder Fred Smith is dead at 80
Frederick Wallace Smith, the founder and former CEO of FedEx, died Saturday at the age of 80.
Smith's death was confirmed by FedEx in a statement. He is survived by his wife, nine of his 10 children, and numerous grandchildren.
"Fred was more than just the pioneer of an industry and the founder of our great company. He was the heart and soul of FedEx — its PSP culture, values, integrity, and spirit," Smith's successor, CEO Raj Subramaniam, said. "He was a mentor to many and a source of inspiration to all."
Smith, who built FedEx over 50 years ago, was a celebrated entrepreneur who often served as a bellwether for the US economy and global trade for politicians and the media.
He was called to the White House as recently as March 2022 to discuss the economic matters of the day. Over the years, he wrote op-eds for the Wall Street Journal, pushing policies, nudging presidents, and lodging grievances.
"History shows that trade made easy, affordable, and fast—political obstacles notwithstanding—always begets more trade, more jobs, more prosperity," he said at a Yale University class of 1966 reunion in 2016.
He built FedEx in his hometown of Memphis, where he was the top business leader for decades.
"Memphis is kind of a one-name town. There's Elvis. There's Cybill. And there's Fred," said Tennessee Congressman Steve Cohen when introducing Smith at a congressional hearing in 2021.
In an age where tech founders and CEOs have attained celebrity status, Smith represented a more traditional version of the quintessential American dream, favoring visits to Washington over Hollywood.
Smith announced he would step down as CEO in March 2022, handing the reins to lieutenant Raj Subramaniam and taking on the role of executive chairman.
"FedEx has changed the world by connecting people and possibilities for the last 50 years," Smith said in a statement announcing the change. He said he planned to spend his time focused on sustainability, innovation, and public policy going forward.
Founding FedEx
Smith was born in 1944 and served in the US Marine Corps during the Vietnam War. In 1971, at the age of 27, he founded Federal Express with $4 million in inheritance and $91 million in venture capital — an immense sum at the time.
Working from an idea he developed as a student at Yale, Smith based his logistics network on a bank clearing house: Packages would go first to FedEx's central location and to their final destination the next day. Today, Smith is largely credited with inventing the concept of guaranteed overnight delivery.
In the early days, FedEx focused on the medical and manufacturing industries, where parts and materials are often needed urgently. The company bought its first plane in 1973, turned its first profit after four years in business, and only grew from there.
Smith said his time in the Marine Corps gave him a high tolerance for risk. Business decisions felt light compared to the life-and-death choices he had made in Vietnam. At one point in the early days, FedEx had just $5,000 left. Smith took the money, flew to Las Vegas, turned it into $27,000 playing blackjack, and used the windfall to pay fuel suppliers.
In the late 1970s, airline deregulation allowed FedEx to buy hundreds of planes and construct an international network.
In a 1983 interview, 60 Minutes' Morley Safer asked the 39-year-old Smith if he ever doubted FedEx would be a success.
"Well, that would be an understatement," Smith replied with a laugh.
Starting around that time, Smith grew his company with dozens of acquisitions. His 1989 purchase of cargo airline Flying Tigers made FedEx the largest full-service, all-cargo airline in the world, which remained for decades, and still is. He bought delivery firm RPS in 1997, which would become FedEx Ground, and Kinko's in 2004 to form the FedEx Office retail store network.
By 2021, the company was shipping roughly 3 billion packages every year, with 688 planes in 220 countries and territories.
Taking on Washington and New York
Smith was an outspoken advocate for American business around the world throughout his more than 50 years as CEO. He served as president of the US-China Business Council when China became a member of the WTO, and was close friends with former President George W. Bush.
Bush wrote in his 2010 memoir that Smith was his top pick for Secretary of Defense in both of his terms, but the executive declined due to the failing health of his daughter Windland Smith Rice, who died in 2005. Smith was also national cochair of John McCain's presidential campaign committee in 2008.
Though a Republican, Smith publicly disagreed with President Donald Trump's use of tariffs and opposition to multilateral trade deals. "Trade is what's made America great over the years," Smith told CBS's "This Morning" in 2017.
Smith's disagreements with the Trump administration were, however, less heated than his related spat with The New York Times, which centered on the Trump administration's tax policies.
Smith publicly sparred with the paper when it published a 2017 story detailing how FedEx was able to pay zero taxes after working to encourage Trump's tentpole corporate tax cuts. Smith called the story "distorted and factually incorrect," and challenged publisher A.G. Sulzberger to a public debate, which the paper declined, calling Smith's response "colorful" and a "stunt." In a Wall Street Journal op-ed, Smith accused the paper of "printing selected facts, connecting unrelated events, and implying nefarious activities when there were none whatever."
Evolution in the age of Amazon
In its early decades, FedEx chiefly moved deliveries from one business to another. The rise of e-commerce changed that and triggered some of the biggest changes in the company's history, though some experts say Smith didn't pivot quickly enough.
In 2019, the company began to integrate its disparate Ground and Express services somewhat and moved away from the US Postal Service in an effort to boost its own efficiency.
That was also the year Smith went from a partner of Amazon to a fierce adversary. The CEO had shirked years of questions as to whether Amazon's growing logistics empire was a threat to FedEx — until Amazon named logistics companies as competitors in an annual filing with the SEC.
FedEx then cut ties with the internet giant, the only carrier to do so. Smith described the battle for e-commerce dominance as a war in which he was betting on Amazon's opponents.
Smith's sometimes gruff, no-nonsense style was frequently on display when discussing Amazon. He once called then-Amazon operations lead Dave Clark a "smartass" in the Wall Street Journal."
Smith and his then-COO Raj Subramaniam, who will succeed Smith on June 1, 2022, designed the moves away from Amazon and the USPS.
Leaving a mark on the US economy
Smith built a delivery company into a universally recognized cultural icon. The plane that delivered the first FedEx package sits in the Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum. The current FedEx logo, introduced in 1994, is a classic of graphic design and the focus of frequent internet fascination over the arrow created by the "E" and "x." Plus, a FedEx package was at the emotional core of the Oscar-nominated Tom Hanks film "Cast Away" (in which Smith had a cameo).
"I always told Tom Hanks I thought my 18 seconds in there sort of made his career," he said in the same 2017 CBS interview, with his signature deadpan delivery.
FedEx's name is on an NFL stadium — FedEx Field, outside Washington, DC, home to the Washington Commanders, of which Smith was once a minority owner. His son, Arthur, is the head coach for the Atlanta Falcons.
Son Richard Smith is set to take over as CEO of FedEx Express at the end of 2022, and daughter Samantha Smith works in government affairs for FedEx in Washington, DC.
Inside FedEx, Fred Smith was revered. He was referred to as "Mr. Smith" or "the chairman" and was known for eschewing some of the fineries his level of success usually entails. He commuted the short distance from his home to his Memphis HQ in his own modest car.
Smith solidified FedEx and logistics as a lynchpin in the American economy. The role of package delivery companies changed over the course of Smith's career, but perhaps never more so than during the coronavirus pandemic beginning in 2020. FedEx and its competitors played crucial roles in the delivery of critical supplies. When vaccines were ready for distribution in early 2021, FedEx carried some of the first shipments. In 2021 alone, FedEx delivered roughly 300 million COVID-19 vaccines in more than 50 countries and territories around the world.
"We're honored to be a part of this great mission to remove the scourge from our society," said Smith at a 2020 meeting with then-Vice President Mike Pence to discuss Operation Warp Speed vaccine distribution efforts.
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