Giants of Memphis business & philanthropy: Pitt Hyde remembers his friend, Fred Smith
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Giants of Memphis business & philanthropy: Pitt Hyde remembers his friend, Fred Smith
Frederick W. Smith, founder of FedEx, died March 6, 2025. Smith and AutoZone founder Pitt Hyde had been friends for decades. Smith had undergone successful lung cancer surgery in March 2025. Hyde says Smith revealed a new cancer diagnosis during a visit to his home last week. “It was an amazing friendship,” said Hyde, who says the two remained close for the rest of their lives. “We just had a wonderful time, so I feel blessed that I had that time with him,” Hyde said.”I feel so fortunate that four days before he died, he called me and wanted to come visit, and I said, ‘Fine, come have lunch,’’ said Hyde. “It was the largest venture capital that had been done, a whopping $75 million, which is like a peanut today,” said Hyde of Smith’s vision for FedEx. “He set the stage ultimately for the deregulation of the airlines. It was good for FedEx, and it was great for the country as well,” he said.
Joseph R. “Pitt” Hyde III, the founder of AutoZone, welcomed Frederick W. Smith, the founder of FedEx, to his home for lunch.
“I feel so fortunate that four days before he died, he called me and wanted to come visit, and I said, ‘Fine, come have lunch,’” said Hyde.
The two had been friends since their days at Memphis’ Presbyterian Day School, when Hyde, a third grader, met Smith, one year younger.
“It was an amazing friendship,” said Hyde, who says the two remained close for the rest of their lives. At that last lunch, Hyde says Smith revealed a new cancer diagnosis.
“He just got back from Mayo Clinic and had some bad news on cancer,” Hyde said. Smith had undergone successful lung cancer surgery on March 6, 2025, but Hyde says the recent trip to Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, uncovered cancer of the prostate.
“I had a history of prostate cancer myself,” said Hyde, who underwent cutting-edge treatment for the disease that proved successful in the 1990s.
AutoZone founder Pitt Hyde sits down with Action News 5’s Joe Birch to remember his late friend, Fred Smith (Action News 5)
Hyde says they got past their conversation on health and reminisced about their seven decades of friendship.
“We got to talking about everything,” remembered Hyde, “the good old days to the current situation, we just had a wonderful time, so I feel blessed that I had that time with him.”
Going back to the 1960s, Hyde says Smith shared his FedEx vision with him in Memphis when on leave from the Marines, as Smith served two tours of duty in Vietnam as a pilot and air traffic controller.
After his military service, Smith became convinced his dream of an overnight air freight delivery service could work and set about raising venture capital to make it happen.
“It was the largest venture capital that had been done, a whopping $75 million,” said Hyde, ” which is like a peanut today.”
The Smith vision for FedEx featured a “spoke and hub” system, where flights would collect packages nationwide and then carry them to a Memphis super-hub where they’d be sorted and sent on their way to their ultimate destinations.
In the early planning stages, Hyde says he and Smith talked in detail about how to get the delivery system to a level of success nationwide that could be sustained.
“At the first period of time, those planes are going to be half empty at best, how could you have enough time frame to get to scale?”
FedEx Corp. founder Fred Smith takes part in a discussion at the National Conference of State Legislatures in Nashville, Tenn. on Tuesday, Aug. 15, 2006. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey) (MARK HUMPHREY | ASSOCIATED PRESS)
Hyde says he and Smith mulled these matters as they tried to plot out how FedEx could survive until it started becoming profitable. He says Smith, still in his 30s, was able to convince the Carter Administration to change some regulations for FedEx air operations.
Hyde says Smith “set the stage ultimately for the deregulation of the airlines. It was good for FedEx, and it was great for the country as well.”
The friends had a lot in common. Hyde’s grandfather had started Malone and Hyde, a large food wholesaler. Under Pitt Hyde’s leadership, Malone and Hyde became America’s third-largest food distributor with annual sales of more than $3 billion.
Hyde, a business visionary himself, expanded his family’s business ventures into drug stores (he was the first president of Super D Drugs), sporting goods stores, supermarkets and ultimately, AutoZone, which he founded in 1979.
But while Hyde was still focused on the wholesale grocery business, he invited Smith to serve on the Malone and Hyde board for a decade. For 10 years, Hyde was the youngest CEO on the New York Stock Exchange.
Fred Smith (center) served on the Malone and Hyde Board, Pitt Hyde’s family company, before he launched AutoZone in 1979. (Action News 5)
Smith had a business heritage as well, as his father owned a bus line and a restaurant chain called Toddle House.
Smith used his family inheritance of roughly $4 million and the $75 million in venture capital he raised to launch FedEx.
He invited Hyde to serve on the FedEx Board of Directors, which he did for 34 years and watched his friend become the man former Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland calls “the most significant Memphian in history.”
Hyde concurs wholeheartedly: “He was such an innovator. His concept (FedEx) became a major industry in Memphis, with over 30,000 jobs and well-paid pilots and everybody else. There’s no doubt he’s the most significant Memphis person ever.”
In terms of philanthropy, the Hyde-Smith duo became a united force unmatched in scope and effectiveness.
The Hyde Family Foundation gave major gifts that transformed Shelby Farms Park, Tom Lee Park, and the major renovation of the National Civil Rights Museum, and has invested generously in the brand-new Memphis Museum of Art, which Hyde says will put Memphis on the map in the world of art.
Fred Smith and his wife Diane have made charitable investments too numerous to count, including $65 million to the U.S. Marine Corps Scholarship Fund, major gifts to the World War II Memorial in Washington, which Smith chaired, and major improvements to the Memphis Zoo.
FedEx jets picked up a pair of pandas that lived at the city’s zoo for 20 years.
The Smiths have also been extraordinarily generous to the University of Memphis, its athletics programs and are responsible for a $50 million gift that’s funding renovations of the Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium right now.
Hyde says that when he or Smith became passionate about a philanthropic project, they would eventually call one another and make gifts that were all about creating constructive, community-building amenities for Memphians.
“Whether it was one that we initiated, or he did, we ultimately would join ranks because we knew it was good for our fellow citizens,” Hyde said. “Not only building our companies here, which is great for the community and great for AutoZoners and FedEx people, but it creates so many opportunities for our development.”
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