Former Secretary of State Colin Powell remembered at funeral in DC

WASHINGTON (FOX 5 DC) - Former Secretary of State Colin Powell was remembered at his funeral Friday in Washington, D.C.

Powell, who was battling cancer, died on Oct. 18 at age 84 from COVID-19 related complications.

President Joe Biden, former President Barack Obama and former President George W. Bush attended the funeral.

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Secretary Powell, who served for decades in and out of uniform starting with his service in the Vietnam War, was also national security advisor from 1987 to 1989 and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 1989 to 1993.

READ MORE: Colin Powell, former US secretary of state, dies of COVID-19 complications

"Beyond his military and diplomatic success, Secretary Powell became a universally respected north star on the nation’s moral compass," said The Very Rev. Randolph Marshall Hollerith, dean of Washington National Cathedral. "We pray that America will find the courage and capacity to be the nation that Secretary Powell believed us to be."

Born in 1937, Secretary Powell was raised by immigrant parents and grew up in the South Bronx. He attended City College of New York, where he joined the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps, and was commissioned as second lieutenant before serving in Vietnam from 1962 to 1971.

He later rose to the rank of four-star general and went on to serve as national security advisor and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in the Reagan and first Bush administrations, respectively.

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He served as the first Black secretary of state in the second Bush administration, from 2001 to 2005.