Memphis, Tenne. – Fred Smith, founder of Fedex Corp, who brought a revolution in the express delivery industry, the company said. He was 80 years old.

FEDEX began operating in 1973, which distributed smaller parcels and documents more faster than postal service. In the next half century, Smith, a marine veteran, oversees the development of a company that became something of an economic bellweather because many other companies rely on it.

Memphis, Tennessi -based Fedex became a global transport and logistics company, an average of 17 million shipments per business day. Smith stepped as CEO in 2022, but remained the executive chairman.

Smith, a 1966 graduate of Yale University, used a commercial theory, which he came to the college to create a distribution system based on coordinated air cargo flights focused on a main hub, a “hub and spokes” system, as it became known.

The company played a major role in the shift by the US trade and industry, which to use time-sensitive delivery and less dependence on large inventions and warehouses.

Smith once told The Associated Press that he had come up with the name Federal Express as he wanted the company to make a big and important sound when it was actually a start-up operation with the future.

At that time, Smith was trying to launch a major shipping contract with the Federal Reserve Bank, which did not work.

Initially, the Federal Express had 14 small aircraft out of the flying package of the Memphis International Airport for 25 American cities.

Smith’s father, also named Frederick, created a small fate with a regional bus line and other business undertakings in the Memphis. After college, Smith joined the American Marine and was given a second lieutenant commission. He left the army as a captain in 1969 after two tourism in Vietnam, where he was decorated for bravery and wounds in war.

In an 2023 interview, he told Associated Press that whatever he did came from his experience in Marine to run the fedex, not he learned in Yale.

Starting Federal Express was not an easy task. Overnight shipments were new to American trade and the company had a fleet of aircraft and a system of interconnecting air routes in place to place.

Although one of the most famous and most prominent citizens of Memphis, Smith usually avoided public spotlight, dedicating his energies to work and family.

Despite her low profile, Smith made a cameo appearance starring Tom Hax in the 2000 film “Castway”. The film was about a fedex employee trapped on an island.

“Memphis has lost its most important citizen, Fred Smith,” said Tennessy’s US Rape Steve Cohen, citing Smith’s support for everything from the University of Memphis to the city of the city. “Fedex is the engine of our economy, and Fred Smith was its visionary founder. But even more, he was a dedicated citizen who cared deeply about our city.”

Smith rarely promoted grains that he and his family had created, but he agreed to a gift to Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation to talk with AP in 2023, studying in stem to abolish a new scholarship fund for children of Navy service members.

Smith said at that time, “The thing I am interested is the institute and the reasons are not named or recognized.”

Asked what means to contribute to the good of the public, he replied:

He said, “America is the most liberal country in the world. It is a wonderful contribution that Americans make every year. From the smallest things to these massive health care initiatives and everything in the middle and everything in the middle, he said. “I think if you have done well in this country, it is very rare for you that you are not ready to give a very good part of that in public interest. And all this is in the great tradition of American philanthropy.”