Longtime Colorado talk show host Aaron Harber reflected on Gen. Colin Powell, “one of my favorite guests,” after the first Black U.S. secretary of state died Monday from COVID-19 at age 84.

Harber interviewed the retired Army soldier and diplomat in 2010 about leadership and being a role-model.

“The message I usually leave with young audiences, high school kids or elementary school kids, is to look at people like me and see what you can learn from me in my success and my failures,” Powell told Harber. “But ultimately the only role-model that counts in life is yourself.

“Be your own role-model. Don’t try to be me. Don’t try to be a basketball player. Be yourself and learn how to achieve with your own skills and your own aptitudes and learn from others, but ultimately you have to set your own standards.”

Watch the episode by clicking here.

Harber on Monday called Powell a “true American, barrier-breaking hero who braved tremendous criticism by always speaking his mind.”

He said Powell broke barriers as the national security adviser to President Reagan and later as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and secretary of state.

“He took his role as a national leader seriously and worked tirelessly to help others, especially by encouraging those who needed it most to pursue educational opportunities,” Harber told Colorado Politics.

Though Powell served three Republican presidents, he maintained his independent affiliation, yet Democrats and Republicans hoped in vain to lure him onto a ballot.

Powell was stationed at Fort Carson in Colorado Springs from 1981 to 1983, when he was the deputy to the commander of the U.S. Army’s 4th Infantry Division.

U.S. Rep. Joe Neguse, a Democrat from Lafayette and the first Black member of Congress from Colorado, tweeted Monday, “Believe in America with all your heart and soul, with all of your mind . . . You are its inheritors and its future is today placed in your hands. A true trailblazer whose service to our country broke many racial barriers. Rest In Peace Colin Powell.”

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 Another Democrat and an Army ranger who served in combat, Rep. Jason Crow of Aurora, tweeted, “Secretary Powell was a trailblazer and an inspiration to a generation of military and civil servants. We thank him for his lifetime of service. America mourns his passing. My thoughts are with his wife Alma, their family, and friends.”

As a favor to Harber, Powell once filmed a public service announcement when Harber was helping promote cancer screenings.

“When we shot the promotional television spots in Washington, D.C., he was at his ‘general best,’ bossing all of us around,” Harber said in an email. “LOL But the spots came out perfectly, thanks to his decisions and direction. How could you not love that?”

The Coloradan offered condolences to Powell’s wife, Alma, and the rest of his family.

“I always assumed I would see him again and still cannot believe he is gone from us so early. The world has lost a giant,” Harber said.

Denver Mayor Michael Hancock also weighed in on the passing of the retired four-star general.

“Today we lost a distinguished public servant, Gen. Colin Powellm” the three-term mayor said on Twitter. “Throughout his lifetime of service, he broke barriers as the first African American to serve as Nat’l Security Advisor, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs & Sec. of State, and helped shape U.S. foreign policy for decades.”