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He's been around the world as a soldier, a statesman and a respected adviser of foreign relations and international politics.
But to Roger Jenkins, dean of the Farmer School of Business at Miami University, he is so much more than that.
"I've met a lot of world leaders, but I've never spent time with someone with more humanity and humility than Colin Powell," Jenkins said.
It is this humanity, along with decades of experience on the international stage that will bring former Secretary of State Colin Powell to Oxford, Ohio to speak on the challenges that America faces at home and abroad.
In a speech titled "Diplomacy: Persuasion, Trust and Values," Powell will speaking Tuesday, Jan. 22 at Millett Hall. The speech will be free and open to the public.
The speech will be part of the Jack R. Anderson Lecture Series, which was created in 2000 out of a $1.5 million endowment through the Farmer School of Business. The revenue from this endowment provides approximately $75,000 per year to bring in speakers, Jenkins said. Miami paid $125,000 to sign Powell.
According to Alan Oak, assistant dean for external relations in the Farmer School, even Powell's recent retirement does not diminish his historical significance.
"(We were) looking for people who have a world perspective, and even though he has not been active in government recently, he's certainly been active in diplomacy and in reducing a lot of foreign tensions," Oak said.
John Forren, associate director of curriculum and co-curriculum in the honors and scholars program at Miami, pointed out that Powell's legacy transcends current politics in Washington, with his work standing as testament to the achievements he has accomplished and the walls he has torn down.
"You can't underestimate the importance that he was the highest ranking African-American (during the first administration of President George W. Bush)," Forren said.
Powell is internationally known for his role in the early years of the Bush administration, during which he worked to manage foreign relations in the wake of September 11 and the subsequent war against terrorism.
Nominated by Bush in late 2000, Powell was sworn in as the 65th secretary of state in January 2001. He was the first African-American to hold this office.
However, before Bush's nomination, Powell had already spent much of his life dedicated to America's frontlines-graduating from the City College of New York as a cadet colonel in the Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC). He would later be involved, either first-hand or from Washington, in the conflicts in Vietnam, Korea, Grenada and Libya-serving a total of 35 years as a professional soldier.
After a few posts in Washington, Powell moved into the Ronald Reagan White House as the assistant to the president for national security affairs, a position he held from 1987 to 1989. During this time, he would eventually be promoted to a four-star general.
Powell later served as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under President George H.W. Bush, figuring prominently in the Desert Shield and Desert Storm operations in Kuwait in 1991.
Powell announced his decision to step down as secretary of state shortly after Bush was re-elected in 2004.
However, this did not diminish his popularity. Before his time with the Bush administration, Forren said Powell enjoyed a large following of supporters, with many calling on him to make a presidential bid in the late 1990s. When he accepted the nomination for secretary of state, Forren said that Powell's moderate political views calmed many of Bush's critics and brought a new level of respect to the position.
"When the president chose him to be secretary of state, he brought to that job a stature that no one could have expected," Forren said.
According to Oak, the Anderson Lecture series attempts to give Miami students the chance to interact with world leaders, despite Oxford's relatively isolated location.
"(It is) focused on providing students with the opportunity to have an encounter with a world leader," Oak said.
Former speakers in the series include former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor; the former president of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev; and former British Prime Minister John Major.
Powell was actually the first speaker in the series, visiting the Oxford campus for the first time in 2000.
Oak said that Powell's early visit was irrelevant in selecting him as a speaker. The lecture series is student driven, he said, and since most current students weren't at Miami in 2000, they still deserve to hear Powell speak.
Oak said that the organizers of the event, including Miami University Police and coordinators at Millett, expect 6,000-8,000 people to attend.
