Inventing FedEx: The Cruel Ordeal

by Vance H. Trimble

Overview

Fred Smith grew up as an unusual rich kid in Memphis. Haunted by personal ghosts, he volunteered for Vietnam with a death wish. At Yale, he dreamed up his wild idea -- overnight mail! He spent his family's millions, but it was no go. He struggled through a cruel ordeal and became desperate and reckless. He jiggled a $2 million bank loan that caused the FBI to scream fraud and try to send him to prison. His personal behavior became outrageous; even talk of suicide. But as the world knows he fought courageously with hidden strength that enabled him to amaze the world with Federal Express! This is the bare-knuckle story of the remarkable entrepreneurial success.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940014025492
Publisher:	Vance Trimble
Publication date:	02/10/2012
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	342
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Vance H. Trimble was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for national reporting in 1960 in recognition of his exposé of nepotism and payroll abuse in the U.S. Congress. For this work, Trimblewas awarded the other two top prizes for "distinguished Washington correspondence," the Raymond Clapper and the Sigma Delta Chi, honoring him as a rarity in American journalism-- "a Triple Crown winner."
Born in Arkansas in 1913, Vance Trimble grew up in Oklahoma where at age 14 he became a cub reporter: on The Okemah Daily Leader. He went on to reporting and desk work on daily newspapers in Wewoka, Seminole, Muskogee, Okmulgee, and Tulsa.
During the Depression, Trimble freelanced as a typewriter\adding machine repairman, traveling the South for a year in a rusty $35 1926 Chevy.
In 1955, Trimble was promoted from managing editor of The Houston Press to news editor of the Scripps-Howard national bureau in Washington, D.C.
"I grew a little restless by my desk job," says Trimble. "In Houston, I was under deadline pressure, working fast. My new job seemed to slow. So in my spare time, I began roaming Capitol Hill."
Soon his digging unearthed scandalous nepotism and payroll shenanigans in Congressional offices. The Scripps-Howard news wire planted his daily stories on page ones from New York to San Francisco. These exclusives continued for six months. TIME magazine admiringly profiled him as "The Digger on Capitol Hill." The cheating revelations outraged the public. Because of this grass roots outcry, the U. S. Senate, voted to relax its secrecy on office payrolls. In its page 1 headline, The Washington Daily News hailed this as "A Victory for the Taxpayers and Vance Trimble."
Trimble is author of 13 hardcover books, the first being a history of hyperbaric medicine. Others include bios of Sam Walton, FedEx's Fred Smith, publisher E.W. Scripps, baseball commissioner "Happy" Chandler.

Editorial Reviews

"Vance Trimble, a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, presents a hard-hitting take on Frederick W. Smith, the offbeat entrepreneur who launched Federal Express. A detailed portrait of a businessman whose drive might give pause to yesteryear's robber baron. Trimble logs Smith's business accomplishments and also dishes out a full measure of dirt about Smith's checkered personal record . . . "
--Kirkus Reviews

Kirkus Review

"If you'd like to know the whole story . . . about Federal Express, let me tell you of a must-have look . . . The author is no newcomer to writing biographies of corporate giants . . . This is indeed a wonderful book. Please consider reading this book and buying it for a friend. They will definitely thank you."
--Lance Winslow, Ezine Articles

Lance Winslow

"This story shows some dark spots on Fred Smith's record, which makes him even more human. He never gave up and he never gave in! Readers can learn from the FedEx story about persistence and toughness.
--Journal of Business Leadership--2000-2001

Journal of Business Leadership