Former U.S. Secretary of Defense Colin Powell was a “truly great New Yorker,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said Monday in the wake of Powell’s passing.

Powell, who had a cancer that left him immunocompromised, died following a COVID-19 infection.

“Colin Powell served this nation with just tremendous distinction,” de Blasio said. “Just an absolute great example of the good, the talent, the ability that comes out of this city.”

Powell was born in Harlem to Jamaican immigrants and was raised in the south Bronx. He graduated from Morris High School, and Schools Chancellor Meisha Porter paid tribute to him in a tweet.

Powell later graduated from the City College of New York. He enrolled in the Reserve Officer Training Corps while in college.

In a statement, CUNY Chancellor Matos Rodríguez called Powell “a true American hero who began his lifelong mission of service to his nation here at The City College of New York, class of 1958.”

The statement mentions that Powell founded the Colin Powell Center for Policy Studies at City College in 1997, which later became the Colin Powell School for Civic and Global Leadership, which Rodríguez said focused “on developing the next generation of civic-minded leaders committed to public service and rooted in the social sciences.”

“Powell will be remembered as a soldier, a general, a statesman and a pioneer who broke racial barriers wherever he went throughout his distinguished and historic career,” Rodríguez said.

Powell had a 35-year career in the Army, culminating in his tenure as a four-star general and as Secretary of Defense from 2001 to 2005. He was the first Black national security adviser and secretary of defense, and also shaped American military policy as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under George H.W. Bush.

He famously gave a 2003 speech at the United Nations laying out the case of President George W. Bush’s administration for invading Iraq. The speech, which accused the regime of Saddam Hussein of having control of “weapons of mass destruction,” was based on faulty information. Powell has called the speech a “blot” on his record. 

Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. called Powell a “true trailblazer” in a tweet Monday.

“Thank you for your years of service and never forgetting The Bronx,” Diaz Jr. said.

“He opened the doors for so many others,” de Blasio said. “He’s someone we’re gonna miss a lot.”