Harriet G. Rosenthal

Harriet Rosenthal Long time Mill Valley resident, Harriet Rosenthal, died at home May 17, after several months of failing health. She was 89. Born in New Jersey, she traveled west with her family during the depression. She graduated from Los Angeles High School and then the University of California at Berkeley, where she became captain of the women's tennis team. She received her B.A. in psychology in 1949, a year after she married fellow student and World War II veteran, Paul Rosenthal. The couple moved to Mill Valley the following year. She returned to Berkeley as a commuter, earning a master's degree in social work in 1964. She then joined the psychiatry department at Kaiser Permanente in San Francisco where she worked for thirty years. She remained a Mill Valley neighborhood presence through the end of her life. A lifelong liberal Democrat, Ms. Rosenthal persevered through the McCarthy period, continuing to work for nuclear disarmament and civil rights. She also gave her energies to the Park School PTA. Her activism and humor found their most celebrated outlet in two satiric musical comedies she wrote with her friend, Elizabeth Kibbee. The first, "South Prolific," aided the Mill Valley School District bond campaign of 1959. With original lyrics set to Broadway tunes, it lampooned the crowded schools of the baby boom years. The second show, the 1960, "So What Else is New," benefitted the American Friends Service Committee exchange student program. It took aim at political folly, ignorance, and hypocrisy during the Cold War, as well the stereotypic roles of women. It included such numbers as Rosenthal and Kibbee's parody of "April Showers," recast as a comment on nuclear testing: Though April showers may come your way They bring the fallout from tests last May So if it's raining, don't be undone It isn't raining rain you know, it's raining strontium. In her retirement, Rosenthal devoted herself to friendships new and old and to a reawakened fervor for novels and biographies. After her husband's death in 1996, she found camaraderie at local breakfast spots. Navigating her Honda Civic, she became a daily fixture at the Anchorage 5 Restaurant in Sausalito. When the drive to Sausalito proved too perilous, she dined instead at the Mill Valley Coffee Shop. Later, she perched in her window seat reading the morning paper and surveying the changing architecture of her neighborhood. She will be remembered for her capacity for friendship and for her sharp wit. She is survived by two children and three grandchildren. She also leaves an empty place in the aisles of the Mill Valley Market, and in the hearts of her family, friends, neighbors, and numerous connoisseurs of journalism, coffee, and eggs over easy. A memorial gathering is planned for June 28 at 4:00 PM in Mill Valley. For details, call (415) 388-2560. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations to The Cal Opportunity Scholarship Program, The Southern Poverty Law Center, or the charity of your choice.