Anti-Apartheid Hero Desmond Tutu to Retire

22 July 2010
Scott Bobb
Johannesburg

South African anti-apartheid leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner Desmond Tutu says he will retire soon from public life. Tutu, who battled to end apartheid and later to promote peace and reconciliation, announced at a news conference Thursday he would retire from public life October 7th, on his 79th birthday.

He told reporters his schedule of public appearances had grown increasingly punishing. "Instead of growing old gracefully with my family, reading and writing and praying and thinking, too much of my time has been spent at airports and in hotels," said Tutu.

He said from October he would limit his time at the office to one day per week in order to wrap up his many public responsibilities. the rest