Of high stature or just "a man" of high stature"

Question

Once when someone was talking about someone else's high stature, I heard he said a sentence; I immediately took a note and wrote it inside of a paper, but whereas he was a non native person for a long time I had some questions in this respect; He said:

• ...; he is a man of high stature.

1) My first question is that whether this sentence is idiomatic and natural to you or it doesn't?

2) The second question is that if it is possible to omit the bold part "a man" in the manner that the sentence would sound natural again or not?

3) Can this sentence be interpreted as "He is a great man"; I mean if these two mean the same or not?

Answer 1

1. It sounds natural, but not idiomatic, as the word stature can refer to either a person's physical stature, or a person's level of achievement.

2. If you did take the phrase a man out, it would still sound natural, as it doesn't take away from it being a qualitative expression for that particular person.

3. Yes, the expression "of high stature" can be interpreted as someone being an achiever, or being great.