Gen. John Shalikashvili, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, died Saturday morning at the age of 75. He was a visiting professor at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and at CISAC, and served as a senior adviser to the Preventive Defense Project (PDP), a research collaboration of Stanford and Harvard Universities.

"From his arrival in the United States as a 16-year-old Polish immigrant after the Second World War, to a young man who learned English from John Wayne movies, to his rise to the highest ranks of our military, Shali’s life was an 'only-in-America' story,'" President Barack Obama said in a statement. "By any measure, he made our country a safer and better place."

Former Secretary of Defense William Perry, co-director of the PDP, said Shalikashvili would be missed by his family as well as "a host of friends and admirers."

"He was, without doubt, a great soldier, no doubt following in the footsteps of his father, and he was loved by his soldiers," Perry said in a statement.

"But he was more than a soldier. He was a military leader deeply respected by the American military. More than any other leader, he created the modern American military tradition by bringing into real practice the goals of the legislation calling for the unification of the services. He showed how the American tradition of civilian control of the military can be met while still allowing the civilian leadership to benefit from the experience and wisdom of its military leaders."

"In the international field, he was a superb ambassador and a living symbol of American values," Perry said. "He was admired and respected by military leaders of other nations, and as a result, was able to effectively advance American policy goals. Most of all he was a dear friend. All in all, we shall never see his likes again."