Retired Gen. Colin Luther Powell, who served as the first Black U.S. secretary of state, has died of COVID-19. He was 84.
Powell died at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland on October 18. His death was due to complications related to COVID-19.
He was fully vaccinated, his family said in a statement on Facebook.
“We have lost a remarkable and loving husband, father, grandfather and a great American,” his family wrote. They thanked the staff at the hospital near Washington, D.C., but didn’t clarify which vaccines he received.
Powell was previously diagnosed with multiple myeloma before he died. It isn’t clear if the multiple myeloma diagnosis was related to the vaccines he received.
Multiple myeloma is a cancer of the plasma cells in the immune system. Plasma cells are white blood cells that produce antibodies in response to an invasion of a virus or other antigen, such as an experimental vaccine.
Powell was a highly decorated retired four-star general and one of the highest-ranking Black people in the White House when he served as U.S. secretary of state under ex-President George W. Bush from 2001-2005.
Powell, the son of Jamaican immigrants, also served as national security adviser to ex-President Ronald Reagan (1987-1989), chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under former President George H. W. Bush (1989-1993), and an adviser to ex-President Barack Obama (2007).
Former President George W. Bush, right, called Powell “a great man” in a statement on Monday.
Bush noted that Powell “was such a favorite of Presidents that he earned the Presidential Medal of Freedom – twice.
Powell leaves behind his wife Alma Johnson, and their three adult children, Michael, Linda, and Annemarie.
Condolences continue to pour in from around the world on social media.
