The U.S. Marine Corps lost one of its generational leaders this week with the passing of General Carl E. Mundy Jr., the Corps’s 30th commandant.

General Mundy served his beloved Corps and country for nearly 42 years in uniform and almost another two decades following his “formal” retirement, first as CEO of the USO and later as chairman of the Marine Corps University Foundation (MCUF), among many other efforts invariably focused on our men and women in uniform.

The consummate gentleman, he was once described as “one of the most articulate, intelligent and polished Marines” in the Corps and “one of the most affable men ever selected as commandant”—quite a boon for the service during a critical period in its storied history.

Following close on the heels of the Soviet Union’s collapse and America’s decisive victory in the First Gulf War, General Mundy assumed the commandancy at a time of sharply reduced funding for defense, downsizing of the services, and departmental adjustment to a rapidly changing strategic environment. It fell to the general to ensure the Corps remained operationally effective and responsive to the nation’s needs while shrinking the force from nearly 200,000 Marines to just over 170,000 by the end of the decade. He had to account for the integration of women into once off-limits occupational fields and manage a replacement effort for one of the Corps’s critical workhorse platforms—issues strikingly similar to the challenges facing the Corps today.

A recipient of the Purple Heart for wounds received at Khe Sanh and a veteran of President Dwight Eisenhower’s intervention in Lebanon a decade earlier, General Mundy knew firsthand what it meant to serve in combat and to repeatedly deploy to distant lands. Such experiences established a foundation upon which he based his decisions, which were squarely aimed at ensuring that the Corps was most effectively postured, and that veterans were properly served, in the decades that followed.

As wonderfully observed by Brigadier General Thomas V. Draude, USMC (Ret.), the current CEO of MCUF, General Mundy “was truly the embodiment of Semper Fidelis.” Though he will be missed by family, friends, and his Corps, he leaves a legacy of selfless service every Marine should strive to match.