WASHINGTON, D.C. — In life, Colin Luther Powell, the son of Jamaican Anglican immigrants, rose to become an Army general, a White House aide to four presidents and the first Black American to serve as the United States secretary of state.

But On Oct. 18, the 84-year-old military leader became the latest victim of COVID-19, passing away due to complications from the virus. Powell was fully vaccinated, his family said on social media.

“We have lost a remarkable and loving husband, father, grandfather and a great American,” Powell’s family announced on Facebook Monday.

Powell reportedly had been diagnosed with a form of blood cancer that made it difficult to fight infections. He had been treated for multiple myeloma for years, according to his longtime aide Peggy Cifrino.

“Colin embodied the highest ideals of both warrior and diplomat,” President Joe Biden said in a White House statement. “He was committed to our nation’s strength and security above all. Having fought in wars, he understood better than anyone that military might alone was not enough to maintain our peace and prosperity.”

Biden called Powell a “patriot of unmatched honor and dignity” and ordered government flags to fly at half-staff for a man whose life transcended race, political party and even those he served in the White House.

A lifetime of service informed by faith

Powell’s life of dedicated service has in his death inspired an outpouring of tributes, especially from Black Americans who separate him from the presidents he served. People of all kinds, from civil rights icons to evangelical preachers to a chorus of military leaders to several U.S. presidents, remember Powell as a dependable diplomat and family man.

“I join millions of people around the world in mourning the passing of Secretary Colin Powell,” Bishop T.D. Jakes said on Twitter. “He was a role model to all Americans and epitomized the greatness of America. Serita and I are praying for his widow, Alma; their three children; and their grandchildren.”

But long before Powell arrived in Vietnam — where he was wounded, decorated and began forging his career — he was molded at the altar of the Episcopal Church.

In an Episcopal publication called “The Living Church,” writer Richard A. Best Jr. made an exception to review Powell’s memoir, saying love of God and country was a vital part of his grooming. 

“Although his autobiography has drawn a wide readership, few reviewers have noted the general’s lifelong devotion to the Episcopal Church,” Best wrote. “The son of Anglican immigrants from Jamaica, Gen. Powell grew up in St. Margaret’s (in the Bronx), the neighborhood parish where he served as an acolyte and came to love the splendor of Anglo-Catholic liturgy. “ 

Best noted Powell’s statement, “The higher the church, the closer to God; that was how I saw it.”

The Powells later attended All Saints Episcopal Church in Dale City, Virginia, for many years.

“And at the heart of this life stood our church,” Powell wrote in his memoir. “I was following in my father's footsteps, counting the collection and depositing it in the bank; Alma was following in her and my mother's footsteps, working on rummage sales and the altar guild. I watched Mike and Linda assisting at Mass, and saw myself in my cassock waving the incense burner before the altar on Kelly Street. The tradition had been passed to the next generation, from one St. Margaret's to another, like an endless stream.”

National Urban League President and CEO Marc H. Morial said Powell’s death is a tremendous loss to the nation: “Gen. Powell was a trailblazer, statesman, and a great friend and supporter of the National Urban League. His tireless service to the nation and its highest ideals serves as an inspiration to all Americans. His passing is a tremendous loss.

“Gen. Powell will be remembered as a man of principle, courage and strength, who never wavered in his determination to hold America to the highest standards. He is a role model whose life story will inspire generations of public servants who put the interests of the nation first regardless of party affiliation.”

Judge Carlos Moore, president of the National Bar Association, said, “Secretary Colin Powell was a true statesman and the nation has lost a true giant and real American hero. The National Bar Association joins millions across the nation and around the world in mourning his loss while celebrating his life of distinguished service. “

Powell’s life and career

Born on April 5, 1937, in Harlem, New York, Powell took advantage of humble opportunities at the City College of New York and Army ROTC to earn a commission that elevated him to a decorated military career. 

In college, Powell went from leading his Army ROTC drill team to commanding the entire unit. Though he held many White House posts, his close associates said that Powell was most proud of receiving his fourth star and becoming chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

“I liked the structure and the discipline of the military,” Powell once said in a CNN profile from the early 2000s. “I felt somewhat distinctive wearing a uniform. I hadn't been distinctive in much else.”

Powell entered the Army after graduating in 1958 and later served two tours in South Vietnam during the 1960s, where he was wounded twice, including during a helicopter crash in which he rescued two soldiers. He was promoted to brigadier general in 1979.

Later, groomed by former President Ronald Reagan’s national security adviser Frank Carlucci, Powell became part of a small group of White House aides known as “the Vulcans,” who kept a keen eye on the former USSR and helped to topple the Soviet regime and win the Cold War.

He was also appointed as Reagan’s final national security adviser — and first Black national security adviser — in 1987, toward the end of the Reagan presidency, and was tapped by former President George H.W. Bush in 1989 to head the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Under the elder Bush, his star continued to grow brighter in the wake of the U.S.-led coalition’s victory during the Gulf War.

But Powell had no desire to further a political career.

“Such a life requires a calling that I do not yet hear,” he told reporters in 1995. “And for me to pretend otherwise would not be honest to myself, it would not be honest to the American people.”

Former President George W. Bush said in a statement Monday that Powell was “a great public servant” who was “such a favorite of Presidents that he earned the Presidential Medal of Freedom — twice.” Bush went on to say, “He was highly respected at home and abroad. And most important, Colin was a family man and a friend.”

When Powell was nominated to become secretary of state in 2001, he said, “I think it shows to the world what is possible in this country. … If you believe in the values that you espouse, you can see things as miraculous as me sitting before you to receive your approval.”

In February 2003, Powell delivered a speech before the United Nations in which he said that the U.S. intelligence proved that Iraq had misled inspectors and hid weapons of mass destruction.

“There can be no doubt,” Powell warned, “that Saddam Hussein has biological weapons and the capability to rapidly produce more — many more.”

But two years after Powell’s U.N. speech, a government report said the intelligence community was “dead wrong” and Iraq’s mass destruction capabilities were far less than Powell had stated.

Transcending politics

Biden also praised Powell for rising above political camps.

“From his front-seat view of history, advising presidents and shaping our nation’s policies, Colin led with his personal commitment to the democratic values that make our country strong,” Biden said in the statement. “Time and again, he put country before self, before party, before all else — in uniform and out — and it earned him the universal respect of the American people.”

Former President Obama also called Colin Powell an “exemplary soldier and an exemplary patriot” in a statement on Monday. In 2008, Powell broke conservative ranks and endorsed Obama for president over his old friend, Sen. John McCain.

In his statement, Obama quoted Powell from 2008, when he told reporters that while the then-Democratic senator Obama wasn’t a Muslim, there was nothing wrong with adhering to the Islamic faith in America.

“That’s who Colin Powell was,” Obama said. “He understood what was best in this country and tried to bring his own life, career and public statements in line with that ideal.”

In a 1994 commencement speech at Howard University, Powell said, “America is a family. There may be differences and disputes in the family, but we must not allow the family to be broken into warring factions.”

It will be up to widow Alma Powell and her children as to whether or not Powell will lie in the rotunda of the U.S. Capitol, where his potential tribute would attract Republicans and Democrats. Those arrangements had not been announced as of Oct. 18.

Powell will be eulogized at Washington’s National Cathedral on Friday, Nov. 5 in a private service with limited seating.

Senior contributor Hamil Harris is an adjunct professor at the University of Maryland College Park and has been a lecturer at Morgan State University. Harris is minister at the Glenarden Church of Christ and a police chaplain. A longtime reporter at The Washington Post, Harris was on the team of Post reporters that published the series “Being a Black Man.” He also was the reporter on the video project that accompanied the series that won two Emmy Awards, the Casey Medal and the Peabody Award. In addition to writing for ReligionUnplugged, Harris contributes to outlets such as The Washington Post, USA Today, The Christian Chronicle and the Washington Informer.