PORTLAND – The University of New England has honored four prominent Maine women with 2008 Deborah Morton Awards for their civic service.

The award recipients are Nancy Thibodeau, community activist and winter sports promoter from Fort Kent; Esther Nettles Rauch, educator and former vice president of Bangor Theological Seminary from Glenburn; Martha Tod Dudman, author and community leader, from Northeast Harbor; and Leigh Ingalls Saufley of Cumberland County, chief justice of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court.

All spoke at the Sept. 23 awards convocation.

Allyson Hildreth, a UNE dental hygiene major from Standish, is the 2008-09 Deborah Morton Endowed Scholarship recipient.

The Deborah Morton Awards are presented each year by the trustees of the University of New England to outstanding women who have achieved high distinction in their careers and public service or whose leadership in civic, cultural or social causes has been exceptional.

First presented at Westbrook College in 1961, it was the first annual award in Maine to honor women’s achievements.

The award was named in memory of Deborah Morton of Round Pont, valedictorian of the 1879 class of the Westbrook Seminary – the forerunner of Westbrook College, which merged with the University of New England in 1996. Morton was a teacher, dean, linguist, historian and prominent Portland civic leader whose service to Westbrook College spanned more than 60 years. Since 1961, more than 150 women have received the award.