General Colin Powell, a former secretary of state and a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, died on Monday morning at age 84.
The cause was complications due to the COVID-19 virus, his family said.
The four-star general was fully vaccinated.
He was treated at Walter Reed National Medical Center, his family added.
“We have lost a remarkable and loving husband, father, grandfather and a great American,” the family said in its statement.
The statement went on, “We want to thank the medical staff at Walter Reed National Medical Center for their caring treatment.”
Powell was the U.S.’s first African-American secretary of state. He served under several Republican presidents, including George W. Bush, in whose cabinet he served from 2001 to 2005.
He had previously served in the Reagan administration from 1987 (through the end of Reagan’s second term) as national security adviser. During the administration of then-President H.W. Bush, Powell held the post of chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
In a statement on Monday, George W. Bush called him “a family man and a friend.” He also said, “Laura and I send Alma and their children our sincere condolences as they remember the life of a great man.”
Powell was born in 1937 in Harlem.
The New York Times included this note in its obituary of Powell on Monday morning: “In an interview with The New York Times in 2007, Mr. Powell analyzed himself: ‘Powell is a problem-solver. He was taught as a soldier to solve problems. So he has views, but he’s not an ideologue. He has passion but he’s not a fanatic. He’s first and foremost a problem-solver.’”
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—By Maureen Mackey, a regular contributor to CNJ.
