The family of Colin Powell announced his death from complications of COVID-19 on Facebook, writing that the former secretary of state passed away at Walter Reed National Medical Center in Washington Monday morning. They added that Powell was fully vaccinated.
Powell served two tours in Vietnam and later became national security advisor to President Reagan, ultimately rising to the rank of four-star general.
Powell served as the first Black chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under Presidents Bush and Clinton before being named the nation’s first Black secretary of state by President George W. Bush.
In a statement, the 43rd president remembered Powell as a “great public servant,” remarking “he was such a favorite of presidents that he earned the Presidential Medal of Freedom twice.”
A self-described “lifelong Republican,” Colin Powell endorsed Barack Obama for president twice.
Powell’s family concluded, “We have lost a remarkable and loving husband, father, grandfather and a great American.”
General Colin Powell was 84.
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