Congressman Cohen Leads Tennessee Congressional Colleagues and the House in a Moment of Silence for Fred Smith

WASHINGTON – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-9), the Dean of the Tennessee Congressional Delegation, today led the House of Representatives in a moment of silence for the late FedEx founder and Memphis civic booster Frederick W. Smith, who passed away Saturday at the age of 80.

Before the moment of silence, Congressman Cohen spoke from the House floor, and said in part:

“In Memphis, one of our great leaders, and one of our great leaders in the state of Tennessee and the United States of America and the world, in fact, was Frederick W. Smith Jr. Fred Smith died this past weekend – sudden death; he was 80 years old. Fred Smith started a business called FedEx, the largest air cargo system in the world. He started it with an idea he came up with while attending Yale University and made it in a (term) paper. The paper didn’t get a very good grade but the people of the world judged it as A+. Everything about Fred Smith was A+. He was just a regular, decent human being and a good guy. He was always available. He never made you think he was a big titan of business or a leader in industry and in the world – just somebody who was interested in what you had to talk to him about, and he’d offer his advice.

“In Memphis, he had his hand in just about everything. Our basketball arena that’s made the city the home of an NBA team is FedEx Forum. That’s because of Fred Smith. Our college football team plays in Liberty Stadium. He has pledged $50 million to improve that stadium and bring it up to higher standards. We’ve got a golf tournament that’s the FedEx-St. Jude Golf Classic. He’s had his hand in every good thing in Memphis: in education, the zoo, the (National) Civil Rights Museum.

“He’s a big loss to Memphis. It’s a big loss to Tennessee and a big loss to America. I thank Mr. DesJarlais and Mr. Burchett for joining me up here and I’d like everyone to stand for a moment of silence in memory of Frederick W. Smith Jr.

“A life well-lived.”

See the floor proceedings here. 

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