FedEx Legends Comments & Stories

COMMENTS

If you want to edit, change or delete any of your comments, just send an email...thanks, Jimmy

To send a story of comment for posting, just email to vorlonjb@yahoo.com

---Comments: Last Updated 1/26/20

12/16

Where did you retire to? and how is your location. Submit a few paragraphs about where you are living in retirement which will go on THIS PAGE for others to review and maybe visit you.

12/7

Sandy May Bynm

What a nice salute to THE heartbeat of FedEx. I went to college at Southern Miss with Charlie Powell.

10/19

Lunch with friends: l-r: Jimmy Burk, Elizabeth Blaylock, Bob & Connie Higgins, Becky Gafford, Bob Baxter ; I've known many of these friends since 1980's. Bob & Connie were passing thru Memphis from Chicago to have lunch. Both Bobs & Becky worked in Memphis & Colorado Springs development. Everyone has been enjoying retirement! Interesting tidbit...Bob & Connie have went on over 60 cruises and are fixing to take a 180 day cruise around the world, this year

10/16

D. Tidwell

Douglas Tidwell wrote:

Good to see all the "Purple and Orange" - good memories! Best wishes! EE# 20690

10/15

Nancy Hinds

Jimmy and folks. I spoke to my Mom today and she shared that Ron Baker was moved to Baptist Desoto County today to continue rehab after his stroke some time back. He needs prayers for healing from us.

10/17

Gary Holmes passed away today. Will post Memorial info when I receive it. Gary started with FedEx around 1981-82 after working several years at DCC in Memphis. He helped develop and deploy DADS, Zapmail, Cust Automation software, comm software projects, Imaging and Scanning projects at FedEx.

Services for Gary Holmes(cross posted from Terrapin Racing Memphis):

More details might come later, but here is what I know now about services for Gary Holmes. We would like a good turn out for cyclists to ride:

The visitation will be Sunday(Oct 18) 6 pm- 8 pm at Roller Funeral Home in West Memphis AR: 201 Pine St West Memphis, AR 870-735-1000

...

Funeral will be Monday at 10 am at the same funeral home. The procession will leave the funeral home for the grave side service at Crittenden Memorial Park Cemetery in Marion, AR.

That procession will be about 8 miles. The family has asked that all Cyclists were their Team Kit and bring your bike. Cyclists will ride from funeral home to cemetery.

Hopefully this can be a statement about cycling safety.

In lieu of flowers, Gary's family has asked for donations to be made to the following

http://www.eofoundation.net a foundation to combat distracted driving tough education, enforcement and legislation

http://whenseanspeaks.com an organization dedicated to spreading the word about the importance of safety behind the wheel.

9/10

Chuck Siegfried

Old Telecom Photos forwarded from Chuck Siegfried. Around mid 1980's

7/25

Michael Green: Great info that brought back a lot of fond memories of being in the ITD group

Victor Khan: cool info

7/25

Added Clayton Roderick & Steve Swanberg to FACEBOOK LISTING

6/29

Ace McInturff

Photos of the First Gemini Machines

6/28

Don Rose

Jere Bledsoe

History of first FedEx IT applications

Don Rose & Jere Bledsoe Memories

6/4

Netscape Video Tribute to Jim Barksdale: CLICK HERE

6/1

Note from Kevin Humphries Re: Larry Netter:

After more than 30 years of service to FedEx, Larry Netter has made the decision to retire effective June 15, 2014. His incredible legacy will be remembered for many years to come.

Larry started working at FedEx in 1983 as a Sr. Manager to lead a group that supported Zap Mail. This organization eventually became known as Technology Services in 1986 when the team began supporting additional equipment throughout the company....

During his tenure at FedEx, Larry was responsible for implementing desktop management and the first enterprise email system. He also spent one year on special assignment in the United Kingdom and Europe building a service organization. In 2002, Larry assumed the role of VP of Technology Services, leading the largest IT team at FedEx for more than 12 years.

While he is a four-time FedEx Five Star Award winner, he is most known for his philanthropic spirit in the community. Larry led the American Liver Foundation of the Mid-South’s annual golf tournament for many years, and he could always be found with a hammer in his hand on the first day of FedEx Habitat for Humanity builds. He was a 10-year board member of a non-profit school, a supporter of Forever Young, and started a laptop donation program for Operation Homefront in support of military families and veterans.

I have worked closely with Larry over the years, and I have always appreciated his dedication to the company and his passion to put his team and customers first. He will be missed.

Please join me in wishing Larry well on all of his future adventures!

Kevin

6/1

Deepest sympathy for Sheila Swain and her family. Ken Swain passed away yesterday. He was a friendly and wonderful person. I remember when Tom Stites & Chuck Sertich came to brief me on their interview for a new manager for which Ken had applied. They were blown away with his knowledge and maturity and how well he handled himself, and he was an excellent manager in LHSD.

6/1

Glen Parham

It is with a very heavy heart that I have to inform you that we lost Randy Allen this afternoon around 3:00pm. He was loved dearly by many and will be sorely missed. I don’t have any funeral arrangements yet, but will keep you posted as they become available. It has been a hard week with losing both Ken Swain and Randy. Please pass along to those that knew Randy.

Glenp.

6/1

Irene Williams, Mgr in Telecom has retired.

"On June 1 I will officially enter the retired member ranks of AARP. How the future plays out will be determined in the next couple of months. I have no plans other than I plan not to flunk retirement. FB is a great way to keep in touch, but I'm laying low for a couple of days as I get a new computer purchased and set up. Be back in a week or so. Enjoy each day".

6/1

David White

I'm retiring from FedEx 5.31.14 after 30.5 year career.

------

Yes, I was very surprised and overwhelmed by the surprise retirement party at Elfo's last night. Many Thanks to Keith Burns for pulling this all together. I had the chance for 30 years to work with many talented people. I will miss it.....HOWEVER I am looking forward to the next phase of life at a slightly slower pace. Thank you all for your kind comments!

4/28

Early Programmer & Developer David Everett who created many of FedEx's early IT systems.

Story Here

4/21

Mike Taube

Michael Taube wrote:

Nice job, Jimmy! Some great memories about folks who had faded from mine. Working with a start up/rapidly growing company is exciting and , if successful, quite rewarding. A true privilege. Thanks!

Paul Benbrook

Alan McArtor's Thunderbird @ the Pima Air Museum in Tucson, Az.

3/7

Trivia Question

1/27

Buddy Williamson

I hope I don’t make anyone jealous when they see just how good looking I am now.

Biography Page

1/21

Tom Tompkins

Tom Tompkins who worked at FedEx from the early 80's has retired. He forwarded me a brochure on his new business( home & Painting), wife Cheryl's sewing business and his daughter's new career as a realtor. Posted Here

1/10

Gary Ragsdale

Hi,

It is good to see familiar faces on the web page. It was an honor to be a part of FedEx.

Best wishes to all.

Gary Ragsdale

1/10

FedEx Retiree Insurance Question:
Are we supposed to get an Health card for our Health spending account? went to a clinic today and they asked me this question, or whether the cigna pays the clinic directly from that account?

Discussion Here

1/9

Debby Jolley

Is anyone else having trouble with prescriptions? Evidently there is some kind of mix-up with Cigna and/or ExpressScripts and/or FedEx - so we're not covered for prescriptions now...

CLICK HERE FOR THREAD

12/15

Tom Glasgow

Tom Glasgow wrote(Guestbook):

I may remember some of these events as I was the Project Director for the Superhub. What an amazing experience.

12/12

Ancel Hankins

Story about Ancel & Jimmy and DCC

12/11

David White

Telecom Photo: Submitted by David White and More Comments

12/4

Martha Lanier Moore

Ted interviewed me in 1982 for a temp secretarial position for four months. GFT had started six months earlier. All the cases were in a two drawer file cabinet. What fun I had working with him! One crazy, funny, smart, sweet man. I never knew what would happen next.

12/4

Bobby Gavin

Ted Sartoian may be the person they had in mind when the expression about selling snow to eskimos was first coined. And he made work fun. He always wore a Federal Express watch and Teddy Bear cufflinks. He took the toilet paper from hotel rooms?

We met in LA for a meeting scheduled for the next day so Ted spent the afternoon showing me the local sights. After that we jumped on a Western Air flight to Las Vegas. Ted lost all his money and borrowed what I had left then lost that. He played nickel slots in the Vegas airport prior to our flight back to LA and we roared laughing on the plane when we realized that between us we had literally two cents and no money for the taxi to our hotel.

He loved to make people crazy. Once we were on an elevator with a group of passengers in NYC and out of the blue he loudly tells me to be sure to tell President Carter his thoughts when I see him tomorrow. And he was so sincere that people bought it.

He loved Federal Express and did everything he could to promote the company. Once when we were in the O'Hare airport he demanded that the United agent page the Federal Express representative to come to our location. When I asked him who he expected to meet us he told me there was no one coming...but thousands of people just heard the name Federal Express over the page and that was what he really wanted.

Ted was a joy!

12/3

Ted Sartoian

Thank you for mentioning my father in your archive. I have a lot of info on him and the FedEx story. He passed away a couple of months ago and, in fact, so did Dennis Spina who was a major VP in the east for FedEx.
I was there from 1984-1987, 1987-1989 and 1991-1997....
I'll try and find a good photo of my dad "mr GFT" but I do have many many funny and crazy stories of the early FedEx days!
In fact, my ex brother in law has been a courier there since 1977! He won two golden falcons and I can't tell you how many BZs!

11/26

Chris Apalodimas Farewell

Mark Thomas Farewell

11/24

Directory Listing (If you want to be added, send info to vorlonjb@yahoo.com)

Name, when hired, who hired you, first group, #yrs at fedex

11/7

Comm Appeal

Sadly, Patty Regenold has passed away. Information on her service and a guest book is at

Dignity Memorial

11/6

Dickie Dunn

JJ's 1st BERT Letter in 1980

11/2

Pete Dangerfield

Copy of Letter from 1978 from FWS & Art Bass

10/27

Nigel Bowen

Nigel Bowen sent an email that the Retiree Insurance plan for 2014 was just put online at https://fedex.ehr.com/Ess/custom/Educate/educatepdfs/exnret_heg.2014.v1013.pdf

Oct 14

Buddy Johnson

Passing of Joe Hinson ( Commercial Appeal Obit)

Oct 10

Paul Benbrook

3 of Paul's personal photos from the day that Fred Smith flew the Falcon to the Smithsonian

Sep 29

Paul Benbrook

Just found your website, it is very interesting. I am Paul Benbrook, emp #302, retired after 32 yrs in 2005. I was in Air Operations for my entire career. Have not had a chance to view the entire website but I will as soon as I can. One quick correction: you have at least two pictures of FW Smith in front of a Falcon wearing a leather flying helmet. It was a picture taken the day he flew this a/c to Washington for display at the Smithsonian Aviation museum. I

know because I was there when the photo was taken and have several of my own. It was not a picture taken in the beginning of Falcon operations but at the end. Looking forward to reliving the dream.

Paul Benbrook

Aug 24

Jim Whitworth passed away on July 29th,2013.

Jim was hired into FedEx Satellite Systems to design Satellite and ground systems for the company. Later he was the Director over Proj Mgmt in Harry Dalton's department.

Obit Here

Aug 23

Bob Gavin

Interesting memories from Bob Gavin who joined Federal Express on April 27, 1973

Aug 12

FWS Story-Glo

Aug 12

Pilot Story-Speeding

Aug 12

Jim Moore

FWS & Waffles

Jul 11

Comm Appeal

Condolences to the Smith Family. Fred Smith's mother,Sally Hook, passed away Sunday, at the age of 93.

Jul 2

Guestbook

Sharon: Boy those were the days.

Connie Morgan: Emp# 30469 - Employed 11/21/1983 - retired 08/16/2012. Thank you for these memories.

Jun 30

Good article about the Marine Corp/FWS/Federal Express

http://www.usni.org/userfiles/file/%20Sept/ATC%20Sept%2008.pdf

Jun 30

Article: How Rick Runyon came up with Purple for FedEx's logo and jet paint scheme

http://www.airportjournals.com/Display.cfm?varID=0309001

If you can't see this webpage, I've copied it here also: http://fedexlegends.info/about/logo/AirportJournals.htm

Jun 21

A short summary of the Federal Express startup timeline.

May 23

There won't be further updates to the fedexlegends.info website till June 7; I will be in Alaska for next 15 days. Go ahead and post to the Yahoo groups site, or ITD Retiree Club facebook site, or just send me any emails if you have something you want posted, and I'll post upon my return.

JimmyBurk

May 21

WinnS.

Story about Jim Covington

May 21

Chuck Morgan

Memory from Chuck Morgan, Bldg H

May 10

Jim Barksdale speaks to an MBA class on his career and advice he would give people today. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2i6ts9MdpEA

Apr 25

Ric Honey

Hub Org chart from 1980 & memories from Ric Honey.

I started as a consultant to FedEx in 1982.

I designed the installation of AS 21 – 44 with “Howard Miller” sort controllers.This chart was given to me one morning after we’d been up all night with 10 of the 32 Primary AS belts not running and I was doing the troubleshooting.

Some guy name Burkholz kept interrupting me asking when the belts would be back up.

My response… “about 10 minutes after I figure out what the hell is wrong!”…

He never flinched.

And I’m still here.Thought you’d enjoy the trip down memory lane.(Ric Honey)

Apr 22

A couple photos from around 1989-90 where Winn held his All mgmt meeting at the Millington base.

Apr 19

Lunch with Jim Moore & Winn Stephenson 4/19/13

Apr 10

Came across this org chart of Kevin's dept in 2004...I can already circle many who have left since then and will be leaving this year...new era

Apr 6

Winn Stephenson

What was your first PC?

Apr 4

Richard Dunn

Richard comment on the article about the 40th year of the first cell phone call

Apr 1

Photo from Belmont Grill, April 1st, 2013

Mar 29

FedEx Retiree Discount Form

Mar 27

List of FedEx discounts (Hertz, Corporate Perks, Marriott Hotels, ALPA hotel discount site)

Mar 26

Jessica Rioux

GuestBook: Currently an employee at FedEx Office. Always interested in the history of FedEx.

Mar 22

FedEx and their 737's

Mar 22

Trivia Quiz-Acronyms and Proj Names and Answers Here

Mar 19

Su Chang

From Su Chang
(posting on Gary Holmes Facebook Page)

A year ago today, a driver under the influence of drugs, decided to cross the double yellow lines and drive head-on into a group of 8 cyclists, hitting Gary Holmes and me. Although
I am still dealing with injuries from the accident, I am grateful f or where I am today. My thoughts are with Gary and his family. I continue to hold on to the hope that one day, I will see Gary out there, doing what he loves, with a camera in his hand.

Gary is a long time FedEx employee since 1981. Instrumental on DADS, comm software, Powership & many Scanning Initiatives.

Mar 19

Discussion Thread: Whatever Happened to the FedEx Falcons?

also listed in FedEx Stories

Mar 17

FedEx Fleet Totals ; this does not include the Cessna Caravans

Mar 15

A new group of Retiree Pages has been added as a resource about tips, travel,discounts & links.

If you have retirement tips, travel tips, discounts, shopping or favorite links, send to JimmyB and he will post for others to take advantage of your wisdom. Or you can just post at the Yahoo FedexLegends Group site, or Facebook ITD Retiree Club site and your tips will be cross posted.

Mar 6

Mary Alice Taylor

This morning around 11:00am, FEDEX lost an old friend, John Crider. John worked for Tandem and was a key player during the ZapMail era. John and his wife, Kathy, moved from Memphis to Daphne, AL about 5 years ago. John had no known health issues--no medications whatsoever! He was 69 years young; married 47 years; and loved his three children and grandchildren. He suffered a major heart attack this morning and joined the angels watching over all of us.. John and Kathy are wonderful friends....John will be missed!

Mar 4

Winn Stephenson

Winn provided this piece of IT history. A list of employees who worked at Cook & Federal Express.

Feb 25

Ancel Hankins

In the late 70s, early 80s, as we were planning and developing COSMOS, we were holding periodic meetings between MEM and COS personnel, alternating between the locations. One winter day Charlie Brandon, Bob Kramer, Larry Lake, Kathy Crockett, John Schwarzmann and I were on the Lear going to COS for the meeting. A major blizzard had been raging in the area all night and during the day. It was expected the storm would quit and runways would be cleared by the time we arrived. Well, it didn't and they weren't, so we diverted to Santa Fe, NM to wait it out. We had a nice lunch, enjoyed a stroll in the warm sunshine and just killed time for a couple of hours. By the middle of the afternoon, they decided conditions were not going to be favorable for getting into COS that day, so we returned to Memphis.

That was known as The day we took the Lear to Santa Fe for lunch.

Feb 22

Jim De Arras HHP

I received an email from Jim De Arras who was one of the co-developers at HHP who developed the original SuperTracker. He will hopefully provide future info on it's history.

He did send this tidbit if info:

"How we got the contract is interesting. HP whom we had been working with, did not want to respond to the RFP, and gave us their place. The company in the best position to get the contract (I'll remember the name) sent their response in by Burlington Northern, a Fedex competitor at the time. Harry Dalton (I believe) took the unopened envelope and dropped it into a FedEx envelope and returned it. We were anxious and flexible, so we won. :)"

Feb 6

New IT organization chart to be announced today; without all the names; beginning of a new era; but most of us have lived thru many orgs, reorg's etc; I even gave Winn a Re-Org game kit for his retirement so he could reorg his family and friends, so as not to decrease his reorganization skills

Feb 6

Hiram Shepard

EE# 1406 since 1/21/74 and still employed by FedEx! Retiring soon!

Jan 5

from Pete Dangerfield:

Come out and celebrate Pete’s 40th FedEx Anniversary!!!!!
Honoree: Peter Dangerfield
Date: Wednesday, January 9, 2013
Time: 3:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Location: World Technology Center (WTC), 50-215, Guangzhou Conference Rm
...
Please RSVP to Connie Curry by Friday, January 4th via email cjcurry@fedex.com or (901) 263- 7467 if you are going to attend.

This is truly an awesome accomplishment. Come and celebrate with us!

Thank you,

Connie Curry

P.S. Please pass on to anyone that we might of forgotte

Dec 24

Ray Peek

So, I’m walking through Building 40 in Collierville the other day and I run into Beth Canale. She’s apparently been attending ‘Hoarders Anonymous’ meetings and was cleaning out her archives. She hands me three sheets of paper with this poem on them. It was written by Freddie Rice. We’re not sure of the exact date, but we guess it’s sometime around 1992-1994. It will be funny to all, but funnier to those of you who were working with us at the time.

If anyone has Bob Tonahill’s email address, please forward this to him. He was our director and the main character in this poetic work of art, and not at all as portrayed.

I hope you get a laugh out of this! Have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Ray

(Click Here for Freddie Rice Poem)

Dec 21

Ray Burk

A piece of history. Tandem Systems Group photo taken around the mid 1980's at the CAC off Airways.

Nov 18

Bob Baxter

Jimmy, here's the link to a case study of FedEx that I received from Doris and Ace McInturff. It gives the interesting perspective of "an outsider".

Case Study of FedEx

-Bob-

Nov 14

Chuck Siegfried

"The Good Ole Days" by Chuck Siegfried. Congrats on Chucks 34th Anniversary at FedEX!

Nov 14

Added Facebook site "FedEx ITD Retiree Breakfast Club"

Nov 6

Breakfast with FedEx friends (L-R: Winn Stephenson, Jimmy Burk, Angie Maynard & Randy Roy

Sep 27

Cathy (Chambers) Weeks

The best book written about FedEx has yet to be written! Memphis to Boston to Memphis to Houston to Colorado Springs...some of the worst and some of the best times of my life. I wouldn't have missed one minute of it!

Aug 25

Jimmy

My first Federal Express Shipment

I worked for DCC(Data Communications Corp) 1976-1979. DCC handled data processing for over 500 radio and television stations who were connected to the Data Center on Directors Row off Airways.

Around 1977 we had a station computer down somewhere in the western USA and I had isolated the problem to a memory board in their Data General computer. It was a 'core memory' board about 18x18 inches. It was after midnight. I received a call from the VP Jim Thornton asking about status. I told him it was a bad computer board; I had taken a board out of our test computer and packaged it, but wouldn't be able to ship it out till the next day. He told me that Norfleet(Turner) the CEO was going to call me with instruction in a few minutes.

Norfleet called Fred Smith and Norfleet called me with instructions. I was to drive down to the FedEx hub, go thru the gate, onto the ramp to a specific numbered falcon and hand deliver it to the pilot. The pilot would hand deliver it to someone at the destination airport.

So, off I went onto the airport ramp and met the pilot and everyone was still loading packages. He put it up front in the jet.

I don't think we were ever billed, and the Station computer was back up that morning.

I was impressed.

Aug 25

Winn Stephenson/ Sharon Lucius

Winn contacted Sharon who was Mr. Barksdale's exec assistant at the time of the Cook deal and here is the story of how FedEx purchasing Cook's data center and staff came about.

Aug 22

Buddy Johnson

During late 1977 and into 1978, Ops Research (Charlie Brandon) was running a program named Project Butterfly...ran on the Burroughs hardware located on 1st floor of the old Admin Bldg between hanger 6 and 7. Purpose of this app was to determine where, if any, to locate hubs outside of Memphis. I never heard of anything come from this research. But, I do recall this consuming quite a bit of cpomputer resources during the daytime work hours. Possibly Tom Bullion can add to this bit of history

Aug 22

Added Page on Corporate History which I will expand as time goes by. Thanks for input from John Schwarzman & Jim Moore.

If anyone else has memories, before you forget them, forward to me. thx Jimmy

Aug 14

Added new book to Resources 'Absolutely Positively Overnight! the Unofficial History of Federal Express by Sigafoos & Easson

Aug 14

Clark Hinds

Who wrote the BERT guide?

Aug 13

Clark Hinds

Dads Repeater Label

Aug 12

Charlie Powell

Charles 'Chuck' Sertich

1950-2012

Visitation : Friday August 17, 2012, 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. at Memorial Park Funeral Home and Cemetery. Click for Map and Direction

Memorial Ceremony : Friday August 17, 2012, 1 p.m. at Memorial Park Funeral Home and Cemetery

Aug 10

Linda Carpenter

I am so sorry to have to tell you that our Dear Friend, Chuck Sertich, passed away at about 7:30 this morning. His fight with brain cancer is over. I don't have to tell you that he will be missed beyond measure. You all know.

I do not have any details regarding funeral services. I will let you know as soon as I know something.

Thanks, Linda

Jul 20

Ancel Hankins

Story of Charlie Brandon meeting with top exec at Burroughs Corporation.

Jul 16

Mark Bielinski

FedEx's Tenth Anniversary Video (Password is fedex10)

Jul 14

Chinese and Satellites and Rock N Roll

Jul 11

July 11, 2012: Lunch @ Abuellos

FedEx Data Engineering of the 1980's

Jimmy Burk, Terry Cox, Ancel Hankins(Mgr)

not pictured(Dick Winter)

Jul 10

Mark Bielinski

I was a Dispatcher in Chicago from 1978 to 1986 and worked at 2500 Touhy in Elk Grove. I enjoyed hearing Jim Moore and my favorite, Jim Bentley recall the adventures of the early day of DADS. I spent a heck of a lot of time with Bentley and J.J. and during and after office hours. They were both great people to work with and also to hang out a with over the occasional libation after a long day. Thanks for stirring my memories of the those events.

Apr 26

Ezra Fried

Jimmy, what a great idea you had! Its so nice to see all those familiar names and people that I had the privilege to work with over the years. This coming July marks my 28^th year with FedEx, and I have enjoyed my work and career immensely. Reading some of your articles, especially the ones on ZapMail brought back many wonderful memories. I remember the day in July 1984, when we received the exciting news, that a record 250,000 package volume was reached by Federal Express. Best wishes, Ezra Fried

Apr 23

David Zanca

Jimmy - this is fabulous, and for the generation that followed, I thank you and the other "legends". I'd love to see a Legends section or a link to a social network of the "legends" where the folks like you, Higgins, Tollefson, Dalton, Wilcox, and others are profiled - - - who worked on what, when...The "Legion of Legends" should have a place to be recognized...the Hall of Fame, the Ring of Honor...

Apr 3

If you would like to make a contribution to Gary's Recovery using PayPal, CLICK HERE

If you have any trouble making a contribution with your credit card, CLICK HERE for a short summary of how to do it; if still having trouble just send an email to Jimmy

Mar 31

From Gayle Minard:

Arrangements have been made for Gary (Holmes)to transfer by air ambulance to the Med on Monday. Don't have a time yet. He will be in the ICU. Can only have two visitors at a time, and obviously family comes first. If he is in the TICU (my preference) visiting hours are limited to one hour at 9 AM, 1 PM, 5 PM and 9 PM

Mar 25

Gary update by Cathy Holmes Mehl; messages on Fri. nite & Sat.

I had texts from Deb last night and today so here's some new info: they put in a
trache yesterday which will help ween him off the ventilator, and she said he's
doing well breathing over the vent. Then today he opened his eyes and moved his
left toe to voice commands, which is a very big step in the right direction.
They hope to fly him home sometime next week if things keep improving. More as I
know it!

Mar 24

Article on Debbie Jones establishing a Dennis Jones Living Well Network at Methodist LeBonheur Healthcare.

Mar 17

For those of you who know Gary Holmes who was a major part of DADS, MSDS and FutureOps; he was hit by a car while riding in a bike lane with his group in Santa Barbara last week. He is on a ventilator with collapsed lung, two broken arms, two broken knees, pelvic injuries and brain swelling. Remember him in your prayers.

Updates to Gary's status will be posted on this Facebook Racing site:

Feb 24

History of the FedEx Corporation(s)

Feb 23

Wiki article on Dr. Ron J. Ponder

Feb 18

Perk Perkins

just wanted to say thanks for the legends site, you’ve made a lot of progress and I had much fun reading thru and reminiscing about the old days..

Feb 14

Patricia Hardin

These are great FedEx memories that you and others have made available for sharing. The older I get the more precious these items are. It has been exciting to have been part of this wonderful time and place in history. As you Mr Merkel I feel blessed to have been there. Bravo to FWS for FedEx and you Jimmy for this site

Feb 9

A 2005 Article on Fred Smith and the importance of history

Feb 9

Richard Merkel

I stumbled on this site while being nostalgic. I'm retired now and these memories are awesome. I worked for JJ Wood as a DADS tech circa 1984 till retirement 2003. What a lucky guy I was to be part of all this.

Feb 3

Fedex's First Commercial

Jan 20

Nice Collection of Jim Barksdale Quotes

Jan 17

Buddy Johnson

I had this forwarded to me - pretty good article 'The Man from Memphis'

Jan 15

Winn Stephenson & Sharon Lucius

Jim Barksdale appointment by new Governor of Mississippi

Jan 5

Just some memories of FedEx in the early 1980's; if you have memories or comments drop us a note.

I will be out of town on a sunny cruise, so there won't be updates until Jan 16th; you all have a great week.

Jan 2

Rhodes College has re-shuffled their links so I've added an early photo of Charlie Brandon HERE

Jan 2

Delores Bryson Steiger

Wow - what a great website. I worked at Fedex from 1975 - 1992. 10 years for Dave Anderson, CFO and the rest as a Quality Administrator. What a fabulous time those "old days" were. I remember them all...

Dec 31

Martha Moore

I just found this site by accident tonight! I look forward to more stories, pictures, posts, etc. I was very VERY fortunate to have worked in Fred Smith's office for 11 years. So many wonderful memories, stories (that can't be told), but I certainly wish I could.

Dec 27

Russell Johnson

Great web site Jimmy. It brings back a lot of memories and I've learned a lot about what went on before I arrived in '83.

Dec 23

For those of you who know Dick Winter, he was a Data engr for Ancel Hankins when I started at FedEx; he retired with about 4,000 other employees in the I-Service early retirement package; he then started Oh Susannah Donuts which was very successful. He has sold the business and retired again. For those of you on Facebook you can read his announcement HERE

Dec 21

For those of you who remember Dianne Stokely who was the SVP of Customer Service, she has a webpage about her farm & log cabin in Del Rio, TN (CLICK HERE); and there is a photo of Dianne on a TN Vet Board she participates in (CLICK HERE)

Dec 20

Charlie Brandon who was the first SVP/CIO of IT at FedEx passed awy a couple months ago. You can read about it HERE

Dec 17

I hadn't heard but Charlie Germano had passed away in 2007. He was one of my favorite associates at FedEx. Always friendly and knowledgeable. He was made a Managing Director of Revenue Systmes when I first met him and was a close buddy of John Schwarzmann. He also started a speciallized Billing Group to focus on Customers and many other innovations at FedEx. You can see his obit and Guestbook HERE

Dec 14

Steve Stewart

Wow Jimmy! I found this while looking for the date that Tom Bullion started building the first tracking system. I had met him in about 1980. Great job! I am glad you are capturing so many great memories and stories.

Dec 11th

Steph Burk

Stephanie located a 1983 Calendar filled with photos from the 10th Year Anniversary.

Click Here

Oct 17

Space Mountain story

Oct 8th

Harry Dalton

Video Interviews with Harry Dalton

Sep 23

Jimmy Burk, Winn Stephenson & Ken Pasley with General Norm Schwartzkoff at an ATT conference in Las Vegas

Sep 23

Kevin Kavanagh

I have stumbled across this website and while I was an international employee (Canada) for almost 18 years, I remember meeting several of the people listed in your website. I have several very fond, very sweaty years working for FedEx Canada....

Sep 13

Photo from 1982 giving Package count history

Aug 20

Photos from Marie McVay's 25th FedEx Anniversary

Aug 19

Added Frank Maguire to Biography Page; there is a Facebook entry about his passing ; Frank was VP of Communications and Public voice of FedEx in the early days and went on to be a Motivational Speaker

Aug 18

Added Jim Colson, VP Tech Services to Biography Page

Aug 16

RetireeClub

The following photo is from the Aug-Sept Retiree Newsletter (RetireeClubWebsite). You can join the Retiree Club for a nominal amount each year. As long as you worked 5 years at FedEx you are eligible to join.

A retirement party was held recently at the Cherry Valley, Colorado ranch of FedEx retirees Bob McWhirter and Marge Cole. The honorees were Cheryl Bowen(#9777, 32+ years) Sue Tritt (#7467, 33+ years) and Ernie Ohle (#1319, 37 years!) Also attending were current employees Becky Gafford and Yolanda Herrera, former employees Lana Stockdale and Carol Ohle, and retiree Bob Baxter. All had worked together in the past at the FedEx Tech Center in Colorado Springs.

Bob and Marge decorated their beautiful home with ballons and banners. Everyone enjoyed an Italian dinner and lots of wine and reminiscing. At the end of the evening it was sad to say "Farewell", but everyone looks forward to their next reunion!

Aug 11

Interesting tidbits of history from Pilots as documented on one of ALPA's websites

Aug 11

Ray Peek

Memorial Services: Frederick V. Rice III

August 11 - Commercial Appeal:

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/commercialappeal/obituary.aspx?n=frederick-vernon-rice&pid=153037135&fhid=13790

Karen asked that I let all of you know…

“Fred’s funeral service will be at Canale Funeral Directors on Saturday, August 13, at noon. Their address is 2700 Union Avenue Extended. For those who have been looking, his obituary, it will be in the newspaper on August 11; our 38th anniversary.”

“A celebration of his fun-filled life will take place afterwards (~1:30p) at the East End Grill on Winchester at Hacks Cross Road. Anyone who would like to come is welcomed to do so. It wouldn't be a party without Fred, so he will be in attendance.”

“For those wishing to send a memorial, we ask that you do so either to Fred's favorite charity, SRVS on Knight Arnold Rd., or to his favorite school, Briarcrest Christian School on Briarcrest Avenue.”

	SRVS
	BRIARCREST CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS

Aug 1

Dan Elliot

What memories!! The early days were awesome!! Everyone was into to every part of the business!! Great Fun!!

July 26

Ray Peek

Update 7/30: '...at this time the details regarding his(Fred's) memorial
service has not been finalized'

--------------

Within the hour, I’ve heard from Ron Frohs and Brian Sullivan. They are his closest friends outside FedEx and participated with Freddie in the Cobra Club, RC Flying Club and other interests they shared.

Ron reported that - “At 3:38 am Tuesday July 26, 2011. Fredrick V. Rice III was called home, he passed peacefully in his sleep.”

Freddie will be missed.

Other details will follow as soon as known.

Ray

July 22

Bob Higgins

A phone directory from 1978

July 20

Some Comments on Jim Moore's videos

July 20

Updated Jim Moore & Kay Moody bio information

July 13

Janice Wiley

Worked in Media Design & Development in 1980; transferred to Pete Wilmott's office and worked there until his departure. Ended my FedEx career working in Corporate Aviation with Ron McCarter and crew members. Those were definitely the good ole days that I cherish and still miss to this day!

July 10

Steve Walton

Kudos to you and Jim for putting this interview together. I was apart of the project after 1983 and it makes me still proud what we did and what we had to do to make it happen no matter what it took and we didn't leave the job until it was done !!! We all worked a lot of long hours to get the system going but on the flight home we all knew that we added to something really. really groundbreaking special to us,

Thanks for mentioning J.J and Richard as they were my mentors...

July 9

Joe Lowenthal

I enjoyed the video/stories from Jim Moore.

July 9

Jim Moore

Video Memories from Jim Moore who led FedEx in Wireless Technology & Implementation of DADS -Digitally Assisted Dispatching

July 8

Several have asked about Fred Rice; he is at Germantown Methodist Hospital.

July 6

Charlie Derrick

Photo of a youthful Tom Bullion & Harry Dalton

June 8

Anyone who worked at FedEx at anytime in the 70's, 80's and 90's are part of the FedEx Legends era; Send in any stories, comments, fedex photos or retirement photos to vorlonjb@yahoo.com to be posted; and if you see anything you want deleted or modified, just email those changes also. THANKS!

June 8

Comments on Winn Interview of Jim Barksdale:

Buddy Johnson	Great piece of work. Can't wait for more time to watch rest of JLB interviews
Jim Moore	Man some people just never change,, hair now white but the rest is good ole Jim We were all very lucky to have those two at the helm of the Ship that is FedEx. Fred the hard charger, damn the torpedoes full speed ahead, Jim the calming influence bringing order and approach, plan and execution to the table. A great ride… Thanks for doing this. Regards,James B. MoorePresident, GM
Jimmy Sowell	Way way cool. Thanks for sending, those were the days.
Carl Hardeman	Loved'em. Thanks!
Irene Williams	Just watched the interview with Jim Barksdale. What a wonderful trip down memory lane. I wonder how long it will be before all the technology we enjoy today is considered archaic.

June 7

JB/WRS

Winn and I were able to spend about 20 minutes with Jim Barksdale this past Sunday about Jim's recollections on Federal Express and the early days.

Video Interviews

June 3

25th Anniversary Collages

May 30

Story about Union Master Electrician/zapmail

May 30

Directory for all Videos

May 21

History and ages of FedEx Aircraft

May 5

14 Video interview clips of Jim Barksdale @ Big Think

April 27

Winn Stephenson

A nice recognition for FWS.

http://www.forbes.com/2011/04/25/america-best-favorite-bosses_slide_5.html

Winn

April 27

Carla Moore

Carla added her Retirement Photos; Carla's Analytical skills were Legend at FedEx as she was the goto person to analyze FedEx's Global Telecommunications costs & services and working deals to optimize the Telecom Services.

April 22

FedEx & Movie Castaway Info

April 20

Ron J. Ponder

Part I Interview with Dr. Ron J. Ponder (Currently being revised)

April 20

David Pike

Memories of David Pike who was instrumental in Call Center Technology Deployments

April 19

Buddy Johnson

An Interview with Buddy Johnson, empno 7727; Hired in 1977

April 15

Clayton Roderick

ZapMail memories from Clayton Roderick

April 8

Chuck Graham

Correction: Larry Stoltenberg was hired in Memphis and then transferred to Colorado Springs to work for Howie Bedford.

April 8

Chuck Graham

Names of Programmers Chuck Graham worked with when he came to IT.

April 7

Tom Bullion

Some more Comments from Tom Bullion on his FedEx Career

April 7

Tom Bullion

Chuck Graham and I interviewed Tom Bullion on April 6th; Tom was hired in 1973 and has many stories at FedEx; Click Here for Tom's Interview

Mar 16

Jimmy Sowell

Photos of Jimmy's Retirement Party

Mar 15

Jimmy Retirement Photos

Mar 15

Jim Bentley

Photos from Winn's Retirement Nascar Party

Mar 11

Post info about your career, or comments at the FedEx Legends BLOG or on the guestbook

Mar 11

PHotos provided by Gil Hennon; Halloween Festival Photos at 2828 Business Park for 1995-1997

Mar 11

Gail Bermel

Gail Bermel, who was IT's personnel rep for much of several decades, has a weblog of her sailing expediations with her husband Frank and Keesi; Big Easy Sailblog

Mar 10

AT&T was a primary networking partner with FedEx and still is. Many of lived thru the AT&T breakup and eventually it was kind of put back together again. This funny video from Colbert explains it all to us.

Mar 10

Tom Bullion

Tom commented on developing scanning concept at FedEx

Mar 10

Jimmy Sowell

For those of you who know Jimmy Sowell, Winn Stephenson & Gayle Wood, here is a short video story on the lengths they went to, to protect a Jim Barksdale table, so that undeserving humanoids did not appropriate it.........

Mar 10

Jim Moore

Comments on Call Center Cutover and early days

Mar 10

Jimmy Sowell

Jim Moore

Comments on Jim Barksdale transferring over from Cook Industries

Mar 10

Winn Stephenson

Comment on FedEx using Supersonic Concordes

Mar 10

FedEx sponsors Disney's Space Mountain, 1994-2004

Mar 9

In 1990, then CIO Ron Ponder knighted Winn Stephenson to form a QAT and address the issues of SuperTracker Reliability. PHOTO HERE

Team Members: Winn Stephenson, Jimmy Burk, Miley Ainsworth, Ken Hodges, Judy Hill, Billy Gee, Gene Morris, Jim Moore, Steve Gill, Cindy Thompson, David Dietzel, Chris Hanneken, Kurt Wulff, Ken Grauer, Clark Hinds, Tracey Bailey, Scot Struminger, Bill Fleskes, Harold Adams, Frank Jones, Gary Pantlik & Diane Bresinger

Mar 9

An early photo of Fred Smith & Falcon from 1973

Mar 9

1981 Times Article on FedEx looking at Supersonic Package Delivery

Mar 8

Interesting write-up on FWS

1982 FedEx Commercial

Mar 7

Vince Fagan - FedEx Marketing Pioneer

Mar 7

Added Link to Brian Pecon's Book

Brian Pecon's Book Webpage

Mar 7

FedEx sponsors the 1982 World's Fair ;

Mar 7

Added photo of Charlie Brandon to early IT history page. This photo is from a 1965 meeting when Charlie was at Rhodes/Southwestern College in Physics. If you have a more recent photo, or link to a photo, let me know. I got a chance to meet & talk to Charlie in the mid 1980's in a meeting with FWS. The Rhodes alumni website doesn't have info on him, just that he is now retired.

Mar 7

Updated Dennis H. Jones bio

Mar 7

J.Burk

Stories on FedEx Logos

Mar 4

T. Bullion

To see a panaromic view of the A-380 aircraft, CLICK HERE; hold mouse down and move to rotate around cockpit.

Mar 3

J.Burk

Guestbook added to HomePage

Mar 1

JBurk

FedEx & Blimps (from Wikipedia); Federal Express Plans in the early 1980's

Mar 1

JBurk

In the middle 1980's I developed & taught professional courses for CBU thru the Telecom Institute that Dennis Jones helped form. I developed about 6 courses, some for Bellsouth & ATT specifically. Someone, I can't remember who, gave me over a dozen space ship type graphics they created, to use in my courses and presentation. If anyone out there was that person, please let me know, I would like to credit you for your artwork.

Feb 28

JBurk

Some photos of Aircraft and Unload operations in the mid 1980's

Feb 28

JBurk

Info on when ACP started (1965) & Carl Hardeman started working with ACP in 1970 at American Express

Feb 28

Tom Bullion

Added bio info from Tom Bullion, Empno 920

Feb 27

Bob Higgins

Skype Video Interview#1 Bob Higgins about COSMOS

Skype Video Interview#2 Bob Higgins about Scanning & IMS Fastpath COSMOS Conversion

Skype Video Interview#3 Bob Higgins & Scanning/Message Formats

Feb 22

Bob Higgins

video clip: Memory of Jim Barksdale's first visit to the Colorado Springs center

Feb 12

Brian Pecon, who was one of the original FedEx management startup team has published a book, 'From the Ground Up'; Information can be found at his website here

Feb 12

1973

FedEx's first jet named for FWS first daughter, Wendy;

Donated to the Smithsonian in 1983

Feb 12

The FedEx Resort Club

In the late 70's, FedEx wanted it's employees to stay healthy, as I'm sure they do today. One concept was to build an exercise and sport facility maybe off Democrat Rd, across from the SuperHub. This would allow workers to workout before or after their shifts.

Another concept being looked at was to purchase a Resort, somewhere warm, where employees could take vacations with their families and de-stress. It would have many activities including horse back riding etc. It would be offered at a discount to employees.

A couple years later , in the early 80's; the company was growing so fast, that this idea was shelved.

Exercise and healthy living was integrated into Management training courses in the mid 80's. In a week long Manager II training class, you would get up at 6am, and an instructor would lead you in dance-ercise for 40 minutes each morning. You would then shower and dress, have breakfast, and be ready to start at 8am in classes. Some of the trainees barely could do this without passing out, and this idea was shelved also.

Feb 11

Three Stooges on DADS

Feb 11

Jimmy Burk

In the next month, I hope to post interview and memories from:

Tom Bullion- one of the original innovators of FedEx

Mike Struminger- Powership early development

Buddy Johnson- memories of the late 70's

Bob Higgins- a primary developer of Cosmos & scanning systems

Winn Stephenson- supreme leader of Telcom, PowerPad ++

Randy Roy- Voice & Call Centers, Security & Networks

Heidi Amling - Flying Tigers

Do send me your memories to post & share …

Feb 11

Jimmy Burk

What is a Ponder-Rama?

Feb 11

Jack Brown

Great site. The ZapMail section brought back a lot of memories.

Feb 10

Sherry Taylor

Memories of ZapCentral

Feb 5

Jimmy Burk

Anything that Flies, Floats in the air or sea or spacecraft

FedEx has always had innovative people looking at any method of transporting goods. Jets, ships, railroad and truck are just a few. Planning for blimps, huge seaplanes, fast ships, space shuttles are just some of the scenarios constantly being analyzed. In the mid 1980's one scenario was to lease several Concorde supersonic jets and crews from British Airways and possibly offer same day International service from Europe and next day service back to Europe. This was an active plan, but the European Consortium wouldn't commit to keeping the Concorde flying for 10 years; they were losing too much on the aircraft.

Reference /Concorde Model --Halfway down the page/

Feb 5

Jimmy Burk

At the beginning of Zapmail, the long term vision was Satellite communications roof top to roof top, providing electronic mail services. To meet this need a Large Satellite was needed as well as a launch vehicle like the Space Shuttle. The Space Shuttle original plan was for a re-launchable vehicle, and a flight could be done every week. To provide oversight of this, NASA was looking to outsource management of these launches. In 1982, FedEx bought into a company called Spacetran and formed a company called FedEx Spacetran to bid on managing these launches and possibly purchasing another private Space Shuttle. Of course the Space Shuttle never met it's design goals and with the Challenger disaster, all these plans ended.

Reference: "Reaching the High Frontier" by Michael Michaud, Chapter 12

Feb 4

Jimmy Burk

Great Food

It would be difficult to comment on the past and not comment on meeting and eating places:

Elan's at Clark Tower-great salad bar and shrimp

Summit Club-Clark Tower: great view

Fred Gangs-Best salad bar ever & great food; always FedEx people there

National Guard Armory: home cooking galore; turkey & dressing on Thursday

Sawmill: good food, I wasn't a drinker…but it seemed to be the place to drink

99th Bomber Squadron: good food, beer cheese soup, nicest view ever of Airport

Jan

Tom Bullion

COSMOS & COSMOS IIa

I was working on a tracking system (became COSMOS but at the time we called it DIC-AIDS (digital information center and automated information and dispatch system – Smith loved it and wrote COSMOS on a napkin – I ask him what that stood for and he said to make something up – Customer Oriented Service and Management Operating System (Marketing changed it something in the ‘80s) began)).

……Larry Stoltenberg came up with the idea of barcodes. ……I took over Larry’s concept and developed a hand held scanner with Norand. (COSMOS IIa)

Jan

Tom Bullion

Pre-Cosmos Systems

Jan

Chuck Graham

Early IT innovation: Info from the Airbill was key punched to produce an invoice. We then attached the airbill to the invoice. We called this "Country Club Billing"

Jan

Ancel Hankins

Early FedEx Data Network

Jan

Cheryl Bowen

Startup of COS facility

Jan

Jimmy Sowell

Video Interview

Jan

Chuck Graham

Info on early IT history

Jan 2011

Ken Pasley

(About Cook's staff) The IT department was actually a separate services company called Cook Insurance at this time. It provided batch processing for several other companies. These services were discontinued shortly after Cook personnel moved to FedEX)