What Working for Colin Powell Taught Me
The former general and ex–secretary of state made hard work fun.
My favorite recollection of Colin Powell was the look he got when he was amused. He’d tilt his head up and look at you under the base of his glasses, smiling, and take joy in the moment. He had such a great capacity for merriment.
Powell died today, at age 84, of complications of COVID-19, his family said. People who and his achievements—creating the Powell Doctrine while he was a mere one-star general; becoming the youngest-ever chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the only soldier since George Marshall to be appointed secretary of state, and the first Black American in so many categories—will miss what made him such a great leader, such a great man: He made hard work fun.
