Counselor. Community activist. Role model. Friend of education. Mother. Inspiration.

All of these words have been spoken in reference to the St. Andrews Presbyterian College 2008 Distinguished Alumni Award Recipient, Jane Hobbs McPhaul.

The award was presented during the Alumni Banquet held Friday evening on the St. Andrews campus.

"Jane is always on the go," said Susan Wentz, director of alumni affairs at St. Andrews. "She has a level of energy and dedication to various projects that tires me out just watching."

Currently residing in Southern Pines, McPhaul graduated from Flora Macdonald College with a bachelor's degree in science and math in 1948 before beginning her teaching career in the public school system.

Marriage and four children delayed her pursuit of a master's degree in counseling and personnel from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, which she received in 1965.

McPhaul was one of the first to teach at Sandhills Community College when the school opened in 1964. She joined SCC's Division of Student Development in 1965 and went on to serve as counselor and director of the Life Career Development Center, teaching part-time in the field of sociology.

She earned the John R. Sibley Distinguished Professor Award in 1967 from Sandhills Community College.

Her love of knowledge and helping others led her to develop a counseling model, PERSECQUITY (Personal Ecological Equilibrium), focused on self-management skills based on Kurt Lewin's Life Space constructs and William Glasser's Reality therapy. She has presented workshops and seminars on this and such other topics as parent education and organizational health at the state and national level.

McPhaul served as president of the Sandhills Music Association in Moore County. In 1973, she initiated efforts to establish the Sandhills Arts Council, now known as the Arts Council of Moore County.

She was listed in Who's Who of American Women in the 1972 edition, received the Southern Pines Rotary Four-Way Test Award in 1974, and was a nominee for the Wonder Woman Award in 1983. She was named to the Order of the Long Leaf Pine in 1985.

She helped organize the Sandhills-Southern Pines branch of the American Association of University Women in 1977, serving as the group's president from 1985-1987. She was named to the North Carolina Board for Specialty Hospitals (1975-1983) and served as Moore County Chairman for the Governor's Leadership Development Conference for Women in 1980.

McPhaul served as the first president of the Democratic Women of Moore County in 1978. She is an active member of Delta Kappa Gamma and a member of the National Society of Daughters of the American Revolution.

She most recently served the Garden Club of North Carolina Inc. and the committee for the Martha Franck Fragrance Garden, an outdoor classroom used for mobility training, sense and tactile awareness for enrolled students, on the campus of the Governor Morehead School for the Blind in Raleigh.

Named by the Liggett group as a corporate board member of the Stagville Center Corp. of North Carolina, McPhaul later served as president of the Stagville Preservation Center.

"My interest in historic preservation has continued in support of Mill Prong House in Hoke County, near the early settlement of McPhaul's Tavern and Mill in the 1740s," she said. "Mill Prong, known as Scottish Heritage House, is on the National Register of Historic Sites and is documented to be the remaining dwelling constructed by an early Highland Scottish immigrant, following the Battle of Culloden.

"This dedication to Scottish Heritage, as well as my family, have given me avenues of non-ending variety and involvement."

McPhaul is also an active and regular member of the Brownson Memorial Presbyterian Church in Southern Pines. She sings in the church choir and has served on several church committees.