Colin Powell – the former Secretary of State, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and National Security Advisor who died Oct. 18, 2021 of COVID-19 complications – once visited a Catholic high school in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington to encourage students there to appreciate the Catholic education they are receiving, to dream big and to work hard to achieve those dreams.

“Many of you may be the first person in your family to attend college,” Powell told students during a Feb. 10, 2014 visit to Don Bosco Cristo Rey High School in Takoma Park, Maryland. “You are in a position to achieve and to change the history of your family. Never give up, never quit, and never think there is ever a better alternative to a good education.”

Don Bosco Cristo Rey High School is cosponsored by the Archdiocese of Washington and by the Salesians of Don Bosco. Part of a network of more than two dozen Cristo Rey high schools across the country, the Takoma Park school features a Corporate Work Study Program in which students work at area businesses and institutions to gain experience and to pay for most of their own tuition costs.

When he visited the school, Powell said “I am a great fan, supporter and champion of the Cristo Rey model.” Noting that he had visited Cristo Rey Schools in California, New York and Minnesota, he said, “this is a marvelous program because of what it does for young people in America.”

At the time of his death, the 84-year-old Powell was fully vaccinated against the coronavirus, however he suffered from complicating factors. He recently announced that he was suffering from Parkinson's disease. Earlier, he battled multiple myeloma (a cancer of blood plasma cells) and prostate cancer.

When he met with Don Bosco Cristo Rey students, Powell reminded them that “you must do your part in making this a better country, and that starts with getting a good education.”

“Don’t let down those who believe in you. The teachers here give you their experience, their wisdom, their love – do not let them down,” he said. “You should be grateful you have a school like this that prepares you for life. Make sure you treasure the education you’re getting here.”

He also told the students that he worked his way through college by working at a Coca-Cola factory in New York. “Do you know what it is like to mop a floor after a case of soda has exploded?” he asked the students. “I mopped floors, and I learned two things – how to mop a floor, and the fact that I didn’t want to spend the rest of my life mopping floors.”

The son of Jamaican immigrants who was raised in the rough “Fort Apache” section of the Bronx in New York City, Powell served two tours of duty in Vietnam and went on to become Secretary of State under President George W. Bush, and was the first African-American to hold that post. Prior to that appointment, he served as National Security Advisor under President Ronald Reagan and as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under President George H.W. Bush and President Clinton. He was the first African-American to be named chairman of the Joint Chiefs.

“When I was your age, if anyone said what I’d do (in the future), I’d say to them, ‘you’re crazy,’” Powell told the students. “I was a Black kid in the time of segregation, the time of Jim Crow, the time of discrimination.”

He said that his parents encouraged him to get a good education.

“My grades weren’t great, but my parents would not let me quit. I had a large extended family and they had expectations for me and dreams for me,” he said. “You carry the dreams and expectations of your parents and loved ones, do not let them down and do not let yourself down.”

Powell also encouraged the students to “do the best you can every day.”

“The satisfaction I found in my career was not becoming a general, but by knowing I was doing the best I could,” he said, adding that his military career taught him “a sense of discipline, an understanding that you have to meet the standards and ethic of hard work.”

Noting that many of the students at Cristo Rey also come from immigrant families, Powell told them to “master the English language and then you can get a great education.” He also urged them to love this country.

“Never sell this country short. This is a remarkable place,” he said. He told the students that he was raised in a neighborhood with large ethnic communities, including Jewish, Black and Puerto Rican residents.

“I got to know many of the great cultures in our country,” he said. “We have to appreciate the beauty of diversity in our country.”

Powell’s 2014 visit to Don Bosco Cristo Rey High School was one of a series of visits he made to public and private high schools across the country that year. He called it “my passion right now” to inspire “a new generation of kids to take over after me.”

“Every day is a new day and a new chance to be successful. Self-improvement is something that goes on every day,” Powell told the students before leaving the school. “Each and every one of you is going to be a winner – if you want to be a winner.”

Powell is survived by his wife, Alma, three children and several grandchildren.