[Ads-l] Sources for FedEx Anecdote

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

Thanks for the excellent citation, Peter. Perhaps the full anecdote
featuring the wrong-headed teacher had not entered circulation at that
point.

Below is a citation from November 1973 stating that Smith came up with
the idea for Federal Express in 1969 after he had left Yale and after
he had served in Vietnam.

It was possible that the journalist's information was incomplete.
Smith may have reactivated a dormant idea.

Date: November 4, 1973
Newspaper: Des Moines Sunday Register (The Des Moines Register)
Newspaper Location: Des Moines, Iowa
Article: Small package jet airline
Author: Stephen M. Johnson (Register Staff Writer)
Quote Page 10C
Database: Newspapers.com

[Begin excerpt]
Smith has been flying since he was 15 and holds a commercial pilot's
license himself. Alter he graduated from Yale in 1966 he entered the
Marine Corps and did two tours of duty in Vietnam, where he flew more
than 230 combat missions.

When he left the service in 1969, he took over the operation of
Arkansas Aviation, an ailing aircraft sales operation in Little Rock
and brought about a dramatic reversal in the firm's profit picture.

It was in 1969 that Smith also came up with the idea of an airline
devoted exclusively to small-package shipment, and started research to
explore the economic potential for such an undertaking. On the
completion of the research, he created Federal Express Corp., which .
. .
[End excerpt]

Garson

On Sun, May 15, 2016 at 11:25 PM, Peter Reitan <pjreitan at hotmail.com> wrote:
>
>
> From a UPI Story - in 1975.  In many papers - the earliest I found was The Daily Messenger (Canandaigua New York) March 6 1975, page 11.  This version does not mention his grade, and downplays how well developed his plan was while he was in school:
>
>
>
> "He says he actually got the idea for Federal Express when he was a
> student at Yale and did a paper in economics class on air transportation
>  but it didn't crystallize until later. . . . ."
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>> Date: Sun, 15 May 2016 16:20:13 -0400
>> From: adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM
>> Subject: Re: Sources for FedEx Anecdote
>> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>>
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>
>> Subject:      Re: Sources for FedEx Anecdote
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> A researcher named S. M. Colowick responded to Fred on a different
>> mailing list by giving a great snippet match in Esquire.
>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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