Fred Smith, FedEx Corp. founder and Marine Corps veteran who revolutionized the express delivery industry, has died, the company said. He was 80.
A 1966 graduate of Yale University, Smith joined the Marines after college and was commissioned a second lieutenant.
He left the military as a captain in 1969 after two tours in Vietnam, where he was twice wounded and earned the Silver Star for combat valor.
When he left the military, Smith didn’t leave behind that idea of service and teamwork.
While growing FedEx from a small aircraft maintenance company to one of the world’s largest transportation firms, he was also involved in numerous philanthropic efforts, many with military ties.
Smith served as co-chairman of both the U.S. World War II Memorial project and the campaign for the National Museum of the Marine Corps, helping raise money and public support for both locations. Smith had six family members serve in World War II, making that project one “where I just felt like I couldn’t say no.”
In 2022 Smith donated $65 million to the Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation to endow a new scholarship fund for the children of Navy service members pursuing studies in STEM.
“I just love the mission of that,” he told Military Times. “Providing education for the children of Marines and Navy personnel who served with Marines, that just put an exclamation point on my appreciation for what the Marine Corps taught me.
“I never went to graduate school at all, but I joke that I got an extra degree from U-S-m-C, and I just kinda garble up the M to confuse folks. But as I’ve gotten older and look back, I realize how defining my time in the Marine Corps was to my whole life, and it makes me want to give back.”
FedEx, which is headquartered in Memphis, Tennessee, started operating in 1973 before blossoming into a company that became something of an economic bellwether with so many other companies relying on it.
Smith 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.
Though one of Memphis’ best-known and most prominent figures, Smith generally avoided the public spotlight, devoting his energies to work and family.
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.”
U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen of Tennessee called Smith Memphis’ “most important citizen.”
“FedEx is the engine of our economy,” he said, “and Fred Smith was its visionary founder. But more than that, he was a dedicated citizen who cared deeply about our city.”
Asked what it means to contribute to the public good, Smith once told the Associated Press, “America is the most generous country in the world. … 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.”
For his military service, career and philanthropic work, Smith was named the 2024 Military Times’ Veteran of the Year.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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