Asbury Park High School graduate Barbara McMorrow''s life is a testimony to the teachers who inspired her. It is, in great part, due to them that she became an accomplished woman in both her profession as an educator and her avocation as a public servant.

She always wanted to be an educator, and she achieved her lifelong ambition retiring after 33 years in the public school system. Barabara, a teacher of English at Freehold High School, where the 1977 yearbook was dedicated to her, was promoted to a supervisory position at Howell High School, eventually becoming its first female principal.

Barbara became the 2008-2009 visiting Chair of Public Service at Monmouth University, her Alma Mater, and the first woman to hold that honor. The women in her seminars learned that it is possible to have a professional career and a personal life and still be involved in public service.

Her lifelong commitment to her community translated into her being a member of the Board of Directors for both Freehold Beautiful, Inc. and the Greater Freehold area YMCA. Based on her dedication to her students and her involvement with her town, she was elected to the Freehold Borough Council in 1989, serving in such capacities as Council President and Police Commissioner.

Barbara was elected to the Board of Chosen Freeholders in 2006 and in 2009, was elected its Director, on the second woman to hold this office in the history of Monmouth County. At various times during her term in office, she was a liaison to the departments of Finance, Human Service and Public Works.

She was named in 2010 as Woman of Distinction by the Girl Scouts of the Jersey Shore, was recipient of the 2010 Government Partnership Award by the Monmouth County Workforce Investment Board, was a 2009 Greater Monmouth Chamber of Commerce Athena Award nominee, was named in 2008 one of "40 Who Make a Difference in Ocean and Monmouth Counties" by Gannett News, and was the 2008 recipient of the NAACP of Greater Long Branch President''s Community Service Award.

She is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Legal Aid Society of Monmouth County, a member of the Board of Directors of the Monmouth County Friends of the Parks, and a member of American Association of University Women and League of Women Voters. She also serves as Co-chair of the Governor''s Teen Driving Study Commission, as a member of the Attorney District IX Eithics Committee, and the Monmouth County Traumatic Loss Coalition.

A young woman wrote to her former teacher: "I am who I am today because you saw something in me that I didn''t see in myself and you believed in me when no one else did." You only have to be with Barbara for a brief time to hear that echoed many times and in many voices.

Barbara McMorrow, a Wanamassa native, now resides in Freehold Township with her husband, J. Patrick, an attorney, who has been her "running mate" for over 30 years.