COLIN POWELL, the son of Jamaican immigrants who became a US war hero and the first Black secretary of state, died on Monday of Covid-19 complications. He was 84.
The retired four-star general and former head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff who served four presidents made his reputation as a man of honor distant from the political fray — an asset in the corridors of power.
GEORGE W. BUSH said as he announced Powell’s nomination as secretary of state in 2000 that Powell is an American hero, an American example, and a great American story.
Born April 5, 1937, in Harlem, Powell’s “American Journey” started in New York, where he grew up and earned a degree in geology.
He also participated in the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) in college, and upon his graduation in June 1958, he received a commission as a second lieutenant in the US Army and was posted in what was then West Germany.
For many Americans, he was the public face of the 1991 Gulf War against Iraq.
