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Colin Powell, the retired four-star general who served as the nation’s first black secretary of state, was remembered Friday as a beloved colleague, devoted family man and a fierce and fearless leader during a private funeral at the Washington National Cathedral.
The noon service included tributes from Powell’s predecessor, former secretary of state and longtime friend Madeline Albright, Richard Armitage, his deputy under former President George W. Bush, and his son, Michael Powell.
“Dad was famous for his 13 rules, but our family life was unregimented, no morning revelry or marching drills. It was a warm and joyous and loving home anchored by our strong and graceful mother Alma,” an emotional Michael told the crowd.
“Colin Luther was very proud of his Jamaican immigrant heritage and loved his big West Indian family. Family was the foundation of his beliefs and the source of never ending comfort. Bringing shame to the family was the cardinal sin. He frequently said, ‘don’t forget where you came from,’ words that call us to remain grateful, to stay humble and to be brave.”
President Biden and first lady Jill Biden, in addition to former presidents, Barack Obama and Bush, and their wives, Michelle Obama and Laura Bush, were in attendance for the intimate ceremony that included many anecdotes from Powell’s storied career, somber hymns and quiet tears from his closest loved ones.
Former President Donald Trump did not attend the ceremony, nor did former President Bill Clinton, who was hospitalized last month for a urological infection.
However, former secretary of state and first lady Hillary Clinton was in attendance along with the White House’s chief medical adviser, Dr. Anthony Fauci.
The presidential guests didn’t speak at the ceremony, but Albright delivered a touching, rousing tribute and called Powell a friend as much as he was a colleague and a mentor.
“Beneath that glossy exterior of a warrior statesman was one of the gentlest and most decent people any of us will ever meet,” Albright said.
“As I grew to know him, I grew to know Colin Powell as a figure who almost transcended time for his virtues were Homeric. Honesty, dignity, loyalty, and an unshakeable commitment to his calling and word. These were the same traits he saw tirelessly to instill in the soldiers under his command, the diplomats he led, the colleagues with whom he worked.”
Albright called the Harlem-born and Bronx-raised Powell the “ultimate team player” who was a “first rate” listener who was still “nevertheless, always true to himself.”
“He could not be moved by any threat or tempting promise to depart from what he felt was right. He had a code instilled by his immigrant parents, honed by army tradition and nurtured by more than half a century of marriage. He was also guided by a conscience that unlike many, never slept,” Albright said.
“Colin Powell’s legacy of service to the country he loved will long survive his passing.”
Armitage, who delivered the first tribute, shared anecdotes from his time working with Powell in the State Department, including a time where the two met the Harlem Globetrotters in his office, a moment where he sang an Abba song to a group of Swedish dignitaries and times the two met up after he broke away from his security detail.
“Nothing made Powell happier than sneaking away from his security detail,” Armitage chuckled.
Powell, who was fully vaccinated, died last month at the age of 84 from complications of COVID-19 after battling multiple myeloma — a type of blood cancer that can limit the body’s ability to fight infection, his longtime aide said previously.
In his four decades of public life, Powell was the first black man to serve as national security adviser near the end of Ronald Reagan’s presidency and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 1989 to 1993. In the latter role, he oversaw the US invasion of Panama and later the US invasion of Kuwait to oust the Iraqi army in 1991.
His reputation suffered what he described as a “blot” in 2003, when he delivered a speech to the United Nations Security Council to make the case for the US to war against Iraq. He later admitted the speech had inaccuracies and false intelligence that claimed there was evidence Iraq and Saddam Hussein were hiding weapons of mass destruction.
Albright remembered his accomplishments in her speech and said the late leader “devoted the full measure of his energy and skills to advancing national interests and to the common good” and did it in a way that made him loved by his followers and respected by his adversaries.
“This morning my heart aches because we’ve lost a friend and our nation, one of its finest and most loyal soldiers, yet even as we contemplate the magnitude of our loss, we can almost hear a familiar voice asking us, no commanding us, to stop feeling sad, to turn our gaze once again from the past to the future and to get on with the nation’s business while making the absolute most of our own days on earth, one step at a time,” Albright said.
“To that command we can only reply ‘Yes, sir.’”
Michael closed his speech by saying he is sometimes asked if people like Powell are still made in this country and he said that is a decision today’s leaders must make.
“To honor his legacy, I hope that we do more than consign him to the history books. I hope we recommit ourselves to being a nation where we are still making his kind for as he said in his autobiography, his journey was an American journey,” Michael said as his voice began to break.
“Colin Powell was a great lion with a big heart. We will miss him terribly.”
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