Born in Cordele, Georgia, Powell grew up on a farm in Vienna, Georgia, 35 miles east of Carter's home town of Plains. He attended the United States Air Force Academy beginning in 1961, but was expelled three years later for cheating on a history exam. After finishing his bachelor's degree at Georgia State University in 1966, Powell enrolled in the doctoral program in political science at Emory University. He earned an M.A. in the discipline before leaving the program. While at Emory in 1968, he sent a paper he had written on southern populism to Jimmy Carter, and began working for the future president, who at the time, was running for governor of Georgia. Powell's first job for Carter was as a volunteer gofer and driver, with Powell taking Carter to various campaign stops throughout Georgia. Powell then became Carter's close friend and functionally served as his press secretary but eventually quit Emory mid-way in his studies to work full-time for Carter.
Press Aide to Carter Campaign and White House Press Secretary
During Carter's first presidential campaign in 1976, Powell was noted for his energy and for calling reporters from wayside pay telephones to make sure they got Carter's record straight. In the run-up to the 1976 presidential election, Time Magazine profiled Powell, anticipating that if Carter were elected, Powell would serve a "dual role as adviser and spokesman" and would become one of the most powerful White House press secretaries in history due to his close relationship with Carter. After Carter's 1976 election as president, Powell was described as a member of the "Georgia Mafia", a group of close aides from Georgia who moved to high positions in the Carter administration, but who were inexperienced in national politics. Powell and Carter's chief of staffHamilton Jordan appeared in 1977 as caricatures on the cover of Time in 1977 and were pictured on the cover of Rolling Stone Magazine, where they were dubbed Carter's "whiz kids". Powell served as White House press secretary until 1981, for Carter's entire term as President.
Later life
In 1985, he published a memoir, The Other Side of the Story, in which he discussed his leak to the Associated Press of the "rabbit incident", Carter's 1979 encounter with an enraged swamp rabbit, that "was intent on climbing into the Presidential boat". In 1990, he participated in Ken Burns' PBS documentary mini-series The Civil War, lending his distinctive voice to Confederate figures of the American Civil War, notably Generals Stonewall Jackson and John B. Gordon. Powell and Sheila Tate, former White House press secretary to Nancy Reagan, co-founded Powell Tate, a public relations firm based in Washington, D.C., in 1991. Powell served as CEO of the firm until his sudden death on September 14, 2009, from a heart attack at his home on the Eastern Shore in Maryland. Powell was a member of the Board of Advisors for the Special Operations Warrior Foundation.
