Fred Smith, the visionary behind FedEx and a trailblazer in the overnight delivery industry, has died at the age of 80. FedEx confirmed the news but did not provide a cause of death.
The idea for FedEx sparked in 1965 when Smith, then a Yale student, wrote a term paper proposing a fast delivery system for time-sensitive shipments—a bold concept that earned him a C. Undeterred, he founded Federal Express in 1971 in Little Rock, Arkansas, later moving operations to Memphis. With just 389 employees and 14 planes, the company delivered 186 packages to 25 cities on its very first night.
Over the next five decades, FedEx grew into a $90 billion global shipping powerhouse, operating the world’s largest fleet of cargo planes and delivering more than 16 million packages daily across 220 countries and territories. Smith revolutionized logistics with his hub-and-spoke model, centered in Memphis.
A Vietnam War veteran, Smith remained executive chairman after stepping down as CEO in 2022. Former President George W. Bush called him “one of the finest Americans of our generation.”