Mario Tama/Getty Images
At its birth in 1907 in the basement of a Seattle saloon, there was nothing promising about the American Messenger Company. The company started out delivering telegrams and small packages by bicycle. But by the time of founder James E. Casey’s death in 1983, the business he had been involved with for 76 years, renamed United Parcel Service, had become one of the largest transportation companies on the planet. That more than 300,000 packages are delivered somewhere in the world every minute of every day is a monument to his accomplishments in building an entirely new industry.
