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I know that it's a lifelong commitment, but has there been any Jedi that just retired? Every Jedi who stops being a Jedi is killed, so they stop being one essentially.
Can they retire?
Say if someone is just so old and wounded that they can't go on any longer. Can they throw in the towel?
Count Dooku was once a Jedi. When he left the Jedi Order, he wasn't punished, hunted down, or even bad-mouthed by the Order. The Jedi held him in high regard and continued to respect him, even after he left the Jedi Order.
From Attack of the Clones:
MACE: Count Dooku was once a Jedi. He couldn't assassinate anyone; it's not in his character.
Obi-Wan also considered leaving the Jedi Order to settle down and get married.
SATINE: I don't know quite how to say this but... I've loved you... from the moment you came to my aid all those years ago.
OBI-WAN: Had you said the word, I would've left the Jedi Order.
When the Jedi Council offered to welcome her back into the Order, Ahsoka Tano chose not to come back, choosing instead to follow her own path.
ANAKIN: They're asking you back, Ahsoka. I'm asking you back.
AHSOKA: I'm sorry, Master, but I'm not coming back.
ANAKIN: Ahsoka, wait! Ahsoka, I need to talk to you. Why are you doing this?
AHSOKA: The Council didn't trust me, so how can I trust myself?
ANAKIN: What about me? I believed in you. I stood by you.
AHSOKA: I know you believe in me, Anakin, and I'm grateful for that. But this isn't about you. I can't stay here any longer, not now.
ANAKIN: The Jedi Order is your life. You can't just throw it away like this. Ahsoka, you are making a mistake.
AHSOKA: Maybe, but I have to sort this out on my own, without the Council and without you.
ANAKIN: I understand.
Although these examples may not be exactly the same as retiring, they do however indicate that Jedi are free to leave the Jedi Order if they wish. The Jedi follow the ways of the Force willingly. If a Jedi wants to retire they may counsel him or her to stay but ultimately it's the decision of the individual Jedi.
Rather than fully retire, some probably chose to serve in a simpler, quieter way. Take Tera Sinube or Jocasta Nu for example; They are still Jedi and part of the Order but they don't get sent on many dangerous or important missions any more. Instead they work in the Jedi Archives and render service by offering their knowledge and learning to other Jedi.
As mentioned by others, Count Dooku reitred from the Jedi Order and returned to his home planet Serenno where he seized/claimed his heritage as Count.
Further evidence includes the rest of the Lost Twenty (of which Count Dooku was the twentieth): Jedi who, for reasons other than falling to the Dark Side or dying in the lines of duty, has withdrawn from the Jedi Order in pursuit of... well, anything.
Expanding our horizons further and entering The Old Republic-verse, the concept of retiring is mentioned by Kira Carsen, a companion and potential love-interest of the Hero of Tython, in the game Star Wars: the Old Republic. You find the quote here.
He is numbered among the Lost: the Jedi who renounced their fealty to the Order and resigned their commissions of Jedi Knighthood in service of ideals higher than even the Order itself professed. The Lost Twenty, as they have been known since Dooku joined their number, are remembered with both honor and regret among the Jedi; their images, sculpted from bronzium, stand enshrined in the Temple archives. These bronzium images serve as melancholy reminders that some Jedi have needs the Order cannot satisfy. Dooku had retired to his family estate, the planetary system of Serenno. Assuming his hereditary title as its Count made him one of the wealthiest beings in the galaxy
-Revenge of the Sith. Stover, M.
Anakin Skywalker retired from being a Jedi when he was seriously injured, although admittedly it's more a case of his injuries resulting from his retirement than his retirement resulting from his injuries.
