I'm not sure he was forced to retire unless his "minor surgery" is what lead him to retire. He died from complications from the surgery. My initial thought was pneumonia, but hard to know. Maybe there will be more details at some point.
He'll be missed.
I watched him on 20/20 the night he retired. He's always been my favorite part of the show, and I had a feeling he wouldn't last very long at the time. On the other hand, how wonderful he lived to the ripe old age of 92 and did it his way! Andy told viewers that "not many people in this world are as lucky as I have been... All this time I've been paid to say what is on my mind on television. You don't get any luckier in life than that."
He will be remembered by many with fondness and admiration. You did good Andy.
The comment about pneumonia made me think of this quote from Robert Frost.
Pneumonia. They call it the old man's friend —it takes you easy. But they gave me tons of penicillin. I said to my doctor, 'What do you call penicillin if it's the enemy of the old man's friend?' I never thought it was the end, but I thought if I died it would help sell my books.
I can't help but wonder what minor surgery he had that resulted in fatal complications...I will miss him. I often didn't remember to tune in to 60 Minutes until the last 10 minutes--I loved his segments. I also miss Paul Harvey's "Now you know the rest of the story." I thought the radio stations would broadcast reruns...he was my favorite lunchtime companion for years.
I guess if he made it to 92, he got in everything he wanted to do. Serving in the military, traveller, world wide journalist, author, who among us could say we did all that? He went peacefully and with dignity.