Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger passed away at age 100.

Kissinger Associates released a statement confirming his passing.

There is a new Henry Kissinger. He was a century old.

According to Kissinger Associates, Kissinger passed away on Wednesday, Nov. 29, at his Connecticut home.

Heinz Alfred Kissinger was born in Fürth on May 27, 1923. When he was 15 years old, his family left Nazi Germany and relocated in New York. Then he adopted Henry as his first name.

As a German interpreter in the U.S. Army during World War II, Kissinger obtained naturalization and was decorated with the Bronze Star for “meritorious service.” Later on, he graduated with a B.A. and a Ph.D. from Harvard. He joined the faculty at the Ivy League in 1957 and held the position of Associate Director of the Department of Government and Center for international affairs.

Before being nominated National Security Adviser by President-elect Richard Nixon in 1968, Kissinger served as a consultant to various government departments, notably the Department of State, in the 1950s and 1960s.

Kissinger was eventually named U.S. Secretary of State by Nixon, a post he held from September 23, 1973, until January 20, 1977. He was the first individual to hold both roles simultaneously. But on November 3, 1975, more than a year after the Watergate affair initially surfaced, then-President Gerald R. Ford fired Kissinger as National Security Advisor but retained him as the Secretary of State of the United States.

Kissinger was a major player in U.S. foreign policy from 1969 to 1977. He is recognized for spearheading détente with the Soviet Union and initiating contacts with the People’s Republic of China.

He covered a lot of ground while serving as the US Secretary of State. It also had its share of controversy, bearing the same designation as the much-discussed “Kissinger Report” or National Security Study Memorandum 200.

In 1982, Kissinger left politics to form Kissinger Associates, an international geopolitical consulting firm with headquarters in New York City. He also authored about two dozen books on topics related to national security.

Kissinger was married twice. He had two grown-up children, David and Elizabeth, from his first marriage, which ended in divorce in 1964 when Ann Fleischer was 15 years old. He remarried to Nancy Kissinger ten years later.

His present spouse Nancy, son David, and daughter Elizabeth survive him.

There will be a private family service before he is buried. The official statement states that a memorial service would be held in New York City at a later time. The family requests that donations be made to the Henry A. Kissinger Center for Global Affairs at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, 1717 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20036, or the Animal Medical Center, Development Office, 510 East 62nd Street, New York, NY 10065, in place of flowers.