He was born on February 9, 1871 in New Boston, New Hampshire, United States. He was the second son and second of four children of Daniel Fuller Shedd, a Civil War veteran and salesman of wood-working machinery, and Clara Ellen (Fogg) Shedd.
Before he was ten he was a newsboy, getting up at 4 A. M. to deliver the morning Times of Lowell, Massachussets, where the family then lived. He had a four-year course in journalism at Pennsylvania State College.
He graduated from Haverhill High School in 1886, at the age of fifteen.
At twelve a vacation job with the Lowell Evening Courier strengthened his love of journalism. Soon after, when his family moved to the shoe manufacturing city of Haverhill, Massachussets, he went to work there selling the Daily Laborer, a local newspaper.
Since he could not afford to go to college, he took employment with the Haverhill Evening Gazette as a bookkeeper and quickly picked up the fundamentals of newspaper work. John B. Wright, who had become publisher of the Gazette after winning fame in the Boston newspaper field, soon recognized the boy's industry and ambition and in 1889 gave him a job as reporter at a salary of three dollars a week. He was successively advanced to city editor, news editor, and, on the death of his mentor in 1899, to editor. He was at the forefront of every civic and welfare project.
In 1907 he resigned from the Gazette to join the staff of the Boston Herald as an editorial writer, and in 1909 he became its editor. Two years later he moved to the Philadelphia Bulletin as an editorial writer. In 1921 he was made editor-in-chief of the Bulletin, a position he held until his death.
A tireless worker, Shedd was at his desk every morning at 6:30 and on big news days often did not leave his office at all, catching what sleep he could on a flat-top desk with an old raincoat as his pillow. The door of his sanctum was always open to anyone who wanted to see the editor of the Bulletin. He found his personal satisfaction in an editorial-page column, "Of Men and Things, " which permitted him more discursive treatment of historical and biographical subjects than was possible in his editorials.
At Pennsylvania State College he volunteered his own services as a lecturer, making a weekly trip from Philadelphia for the purpose. As president of the American Society of Newspaper Editors, a post to which he was elected in 1930.
But in April 1937, after having finally decided on a two weeks' rest at Southern Pines, North Carolina, he died there suddenly of a heart attack.
Being the editor-in-chief of the Philadelphia Bulletin, Fred Fuller Shedd worked for the betterment of his city, organized many successful campaigns, resulted in the reorganization of the street railway service, brought a more adequate water supply. He was also instrumental in organizing the first joint committee of journalism educators and representatives of the major newspaper organizations, the forerunner of the American Council on Education for Journalism.
He was active in religious affairs as a Congregationalist and as a leader of the Christian Endeavor movement.
He took a hand in politics as a staunch Republican.
As editor of the Gazette Shedd formulated the creed that was to mark his newspaper career - service to his readers and to his community. The function of the newspaper, Shedd felt, was not only to present the news but to explain it in order that there might be an informed public opinion. Newspaper service based on that ideal requires trained men, and though he himself had not had such advantages, Shedd was a firm believer in a college education.
He seemed always to have boundless energy, and he never grew old.
He had married Frances Martha Hodgdon on February 27, 1891. They had three sons, Harold Hodgdon, Clifford Ernest, and Karl Eastman.
