Reuters senior correspondent Pullella retiring after 40 years

Philip Pullella

Reuters senior correspondent Philip Pullella is retiring after more than 40 years at the news organization.

He joined Reuters in October 1983. Most recently, he has been covering Italy and the Vatican and was the first U.S. reporter to interview a pope.

Pullella covered the Vatican for United Press International before joining Reuters. He has been to more than 130 countries as part of his coverage.

He accompanied the late Pope John Paul II on nearly all of his international trips during his 27-year pontificate. He also accompanied former Pope Benedict on all of his foreign trips and has also covered the papacy of Pope Francis, including travels on the papal plane to Brazil and the Holy Land.

In 2003, he was the lead author and editor of the Reuters book “Pope John Paul – Reaching Out Across Borders.” He was a recipient of the Reuters Journalist of the Year award for leading the coverage of the death of John Paul in 2005. He was also a recipient of the Calabria America prize and the Agnelli Foundation Fellowship.

Pullella is a graduate of Boston University.

Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.