Woman, 75, shot to death outside Tiburon home TIBURON

The Marin Sheriff department search the front yard of a private home in the 600 block of Hilary Drive in Tiburon Calif., for any clues that might help them in homicide of a woman in her 70s that was found shot to death today outside her home on September 22, 2009. less The Marin Sheriff department search the front yard of a private home in the 600 block of Hilary Drive in Tiburon Calif., for any clues that might help them in homicide of a woman in her 70s that was found shot ... more Photo: Frederic Larson, The Chronicle Photo: Frederic Larson, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Woman, 75, shot to death outside Tiburon home 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

A 75-year-old woman was found shot to death Tuesday outside her home in Tiburon, just the fourth homicide in that town in the past 40 years, police said.

Joan Rosenthal, a former career counselor at College of Marin, was found by a friend at her home at 647 Hilary Drive at about 9:40 a.m., said Margo Rohrbacher, a spokeswoman for Tiburon police.

Rohrbacher said the friend had found Rosenthal lying in an enclosed patio near the entrance to her home on a leafy, winding street in the Del Mar neighborhood, which looks out over Richardson Bay. The home is about a block from Del Mar Middle School.

There were no signs that the tan, split-level home had been ransacked, police said. No one has been arrested.

Police did not say whether they had any suspects, but Chief Michael Cronin said, "It's a safe community. I think it is as safe today as it was yesterday."

Rosenthal had lived alone since her husband of 48 years, attorney Kenneth Rosenthal, died in January, according to police, neighbors and court records.

The couple were well known for their philanthropy. They donated to the Marin Education Fund, which provides scholarships to college-bound students, and made a substantial donation to the Belvedere-Tiburon Library in 2007, according to library agency records.

Joan Rosenthal and Tiburon Mayor Alice Fredericks were co-leaders of the Contemporary Book Club, which met each month at the library.

A neighbor on Hilary Drive, Dave Eklund, said Rosenthal was a "wonderful, kind and gentle woman who gave so much to the community. I just can't conceive of anybody who would want to do harm to that woman."

Her husband was an "extremely accomplished" amateur nature photographer whose work had been featured at shows in Marin, Eklund said.

"She lived in a rather secluded place that I would think would be safe," he said.

Last year, FBI statistics show, Tiburon was among the safest cities in California. There were just nine violent crimes of any type in all of 2008 in the town of 8,600.

Police said Tiburon hadn't recorded a homicide since the 1990s.

Kent Lyons didn't know Rosenthal. But he described Tiburon as a "really healthy place" where people have deep roots, raise their families and stay for years.

Victor Barkhordarian agreed. He lives around the corner from Rosenthal's home and called Tiburon "the safest area in the whole Bay Area."

"This is the first time I've ever heard of something like this happening," Barkhordarian said.