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Colin Powell, the first Black US secretary of state has died at the age of 84 from complications relating to COVID-19, his family shared on Facebook.

“General Colin L. Powell, former U.S. Secretary of State and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, passed away this morning due to complications from Covid 19,” the Powell family wrote on Facebook.

“We have lost a remarkable and loving husband, father, grandfather, and a great American,” they said, noting he was fully vaccinated.

Powell was an accomplished and esteemed professional soldier who rose from the ranks as a soldier in Vietnam to becoming the first Black national security adviser towards the end of Ronald Reagan’s presidency.

He also became the youngest and first African American chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under George H.W. Bush’s presidency.

He rose to national fame after the US-led coalition victory during the Gulf War and he was considered a leading contender to be America’s first Black president before his reputation was stained under George W. Bush’s presidency when he provided faulty evidence to the United Nations to advocate for the Iraq War, which he called a “blot” on his record.

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. He was highly respected at home and abroad. And most important, Colin was a family man and a friend.”

Though Powell never became our first Black president, he became the highest-ranking Black public official when he was sworn in as the secretary of state in 2001.

Later in his career, Powell would become disappointed with the Republican Party’s antics even after serving many Republican administrations. He would help elect Democrats to the White House, most notably the first Black President Barack Obama.

Powell is survived by his wife, Alma Vivian (Johnson) Powell, whom he married in 1962, and his three children.