Former Secretary of State Colin Powell, who played a pivotal role in shaping U.S. foreign and national security policy as the first African American to hold a number of senior positions in the government and military, has died at the age of 84 due to complications from COVID-19.

Powell, who was fully vaccinated, died on Monday morning after receiving treatment at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, his family announced in a post on Facebook. “We have lost a remarkable and loving husband, father, grandfather and a great American,” the Powell family wrote. Powell also had multiple myeloma, a blood cell cancer that can suppress immunity, at the time of his death.

During his five decades in public service, which began in the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC), Powell rose to become a four-star general and served as national security advisor to U.S. President Ronald Reagan in the late 1980s before becoming chairman of the Joint Chiefs during the George H.W. Bush administration, the youngest officer ever appointed to the role. His rise served as an inspiration to other Black officers. “Quite frankly, it’s not possible to replace Colin Powell,” Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, the first Black man to hold the Pentagon’s top job, told reporters Monday while traveling overseas in Georgia.