Jeb Magruder, former President Nixon's deputy campaign director, will discuss "Ethics in a Secular Society" as part of the Ruth Pauley Lecture Series on Tuesday, Nov. 7.

The lecture will be at 7:30 p.m. in Owens Auditorium on the Sandhills Community College campus in Pinehurst. Admission is free and open to the public with no tickets required.

Magruder was born Nov. 5, 1934, in New York City. He was educated at Williams College, receiving a bachelor's degree. He achieved a master's in business administration from the University of Chicago.

After college, Magruder served in the U.S. Army in Korea. After the Army, he entered the business world and became a successful marketing executive.

In 1962, Magruder served as the campaign manager for then-Illinois Rep. Donald Rumsfeld. In 1969, at the age of 34, he was appointed to the White House staff as special assistant to the president. Working under Nixon's Communications Director Herbert Klein and Chief of Staff H.R. Haldeman, Magruder served in the White House until 1971.

Magruder then left the White House to work with former Attorney General John Mitchell as deputy director of the Committee to Re-Elect the President. Nixon subsequently won 49 of 50 states and the District of Columbia in the 1972 presidential election. He then managed Nixon's inauguration in January, 1973.

In April 1973, with the Watergate affair taking center stage in the national news, Magruder began cooperating with the federal prosecutors. In August 1973, he was allowed to plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to obstruct justice, defraud the United States and eavesdropping on the Democratic National Party Headquarters.

Judge John Sirica sentenced Magruder to four to 10 months in prison for his role in the Watergate break-in and cover-up. He served seven months in a prison near Allenwood, Pa.

Magruder was the only Watergate defendant who contended that Nixon authorized Mitchell to initiate the break-in at the Democratic National Committee Headquarters.

After Watergate, Magruder earned his master of divinity degree from Princeton Theolo-gical Seminary in 1981. He was ordained as a Presbyterian minister and has served at churches in Burlingame, Calif., Columbus, Ohio, and Lexington, Ky.

Magruder was married to Patricia Ann Newton in 1987. He retired from active ministry in 1998 to become a consultant in Dallas.

The Ruth Pauley Lecture Series, in its 20th year, is sponsored by the Moore County school system, the League of Women Voters, the American Association of University Women and Sandhills Community College.

The next lecture will be Feb. 7, 2007, for "Presenting Mr. Frederick Douglass" with actor/scholar Fred Morsell.

For additional information call 910-245-3132 after 6 p.m.