Colin Powell has died at age 84, his family announced
Colin Powell, the Harlem-born son of Jamaican immigrants who was awarded military honors for saving fellow soldiers from a burning helicopter crash and went on to become the first black Secretary of State, has died at age 84.
He was fully vaccinated but died of COVID-19 complications, his family announced on Facebook.
'General Colin L. Powell, former U.S. Secretary of State and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, passed away this morning due to complications from Covid 19. He was fully vaccinated. We want to thank the medical staff at Walter Reed National Medical Center for their caring treatment. We have lost a remarkable and loving husband, father, grandfather and a great American,' the Powell family wrote.
A larger-than-life figure across global community, Powell rose from modest means to oversee some of the most significant foreign policy shifts across the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
The retired four-star general's decades-long legacy was marred by a 2003 speech to the United Nations Security Council in which he claimed Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction.
Powell was born in Harlem, New York to Jamaican immigrant parents in 1937
Powell posted this photo of himself from the 1950s on Facebook. He spent much of his early years in the South Bronx
Powell joined the ROTC while attending the City College of New York
Using information that was later proven false, the then-Secretary of State used the purported evidence to justify the US invasion of Iraq.
He stepped down from his position at the end of Bush's first term.
Powell told ABC in 2005 he regarded the speech as a 'blot' that will 'always be a part of my record,' adding 'It was painful. It's painful now.'
But the former chief diplomat was highly regarded across multiple administrations beginning with his first foray into government as deputy national security adviser under Ronald Reagan.
Along with his many military honors he also earned the Presidential Medal of Freedom twice, the Congressional Gold Medal and an award from the NAACP.
'Many Presidents relied on General Powell's counsel and experience,' George W. Bush wrote in a statement on Powell's death. 'He was highly respected at home and abroad. And most important, Colin was a family man and a friend. Laura and I send Alma and their children our sincere condolences as they remember the life of a great man.'
Powell met his wife, Alma Johnson, while stationed in Massachusetts and married her in 1962
Pictured are the bride's parents, Alma and Colin Powell, and Powell's parents Luther and Maude
Cousin of U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, Muriel Meggie, foreground, talks about the house that was a home of Powell's father in Top Hill, Jamaica in this Dec. 17, 2000 file photo
Born on April 5, 1937 to Luther and Maude Powell, Powell spent his youth being educated in the New York City public school system through college, when a military career first attracted his attention.
Powell grew up in the South Bronx and graduated from Morris High School in 1954.
He joined the Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) while at the City College of New York, where he was studying to earn a Bachelor of Science in Geology.
Along with earning his degree Powell graduated college in 1958 as a second lieutenant in the US Army.
That led to a 35-year career in the Army, including leading the Joint Chiefs of Staff under George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton.
While stationed at Fort Devens, Massachusetts, Powell met his wife Alma Johnson. They married in 1962 and went on to have two daughters and a son.
Powell's overseas service began in Vietnam that same year, where he was sent by John F. Kennedy to train South Vietnamese forces.
He was injured soon after in 1963 when he stepped on a booby trapped stake while on patrol, earning a Purple Heart award.
Powell went back to Vietnam in 1968 for a second tour, where he famously escaped a helicopter crash and returned to the burning wreckage multiple times to rescue his fellow soldiers.
'With complete disregard for his own safety and while injured himself, Major Powell returned several times to the smoldering aircraft which was in danger of bursting into flames,' his subsequent Soldier's Medal commendation read.
Upon his return Powell worked toward a Masters of Business Administration at George Washington University.
From there Powell embarked on a career in government service when he earned a prestigious White House Fellowship under the Nixon administration in 1972.
He stayed on in the Democratic Carter administration as an executive assistant in the Energy and Defense Departments.
Reagan appointed him his national security adviser in 1987.
