Colin Powell (1937-2021)
Filed under the name Colin · June 26, 2026
Colin Powell rose to four-star general and then became the first Black U.S. Secretary of State, and whatever else people argue about regarding any public servant's career, that climb itself, starting where he started and ending up where he ended up, is the part that impresses me most. I taught in a two-room schoolhouse my whole career and watched plenty of children start out with the deck stacked against them in one way or another; the ones who made it furthest were rarely the loudest or the flashiest, they were the steady ones who kept showing up and doing the next right thing even when nobody special was watching. From everything I've read, that steadiness was Powell's whole reputation before it was ever his title — a man known for being reliable and prepared long before he was known for the rank on his shoulder. I don't know the man, obviously, never will, but I know that kind of quiet discipline when its results show up on paper like that. It usually means somebody did the work nobody saw for years before anybody handed them the credit.