This went up on the Times' Readers' Rep blog late Friday. I just saw it. Excerpt:

He has reported from more than 50 countries, beginning in Nicaragua in the mid-1980s when the region was in the grip of war. He moved to Moscow in the early 1990s as a wounded Russia emerged from the Soviet Union, followed by postings to The Times' bureaus in Rome and Mexico City. In 2005, as Iraq slipped towards anarchy, Richard stepped forward to run our Baghdad bureau, providing cool leadership on a story that re-wrote the rules on danger for journalists. It will always be one of the proudest chapters in the paper's history. His last posting was to Jerusalem, where he brought his customary fairness and tenacity to a story that requires a steady hand, and found himself once again reporting on a war and on the terrible things people can do to one another.

Nice touch from Foreign Editor Bruce Wallace: "We all wish him many more miles to run, and thank him for making us better."