FARMINGTON - The former executive director of United Way of the Tri-Valley Area said Thursday she is shocked and confused by her firing week.

Nancy Morgan, 58, of Phillips has served in the position since mid-2003.

"I'm stunned. I don't know why. No reason was given. There was no discussion about anything. I'm left struggling with something I don't know and don't know how to get," she said Thursday.

Besides being out of an annual salary of $45,000, she was not given any severance pay, she said.

After an executive board meeting Monday, she said she was asked to come in early Tuesday morning. She expected to have her 2007 job performance review, which was due last January, but instead she was told the board was terminating her employment, effective immediately. She said she was offered the opportunity to resign or be fired.

"I wasn't going to resign. I believe in the United Way. Why should I?" she said.

Morgan said Thursday night in a phone interview from her home that she's completely stumped about what is going on.

"There was absolutely nothing in my file that I had been written up, that I had done something wrong.

And, she said, "The books balanced. Every year they were audited."

"What did I do that was wrong?" she asked.

Morgan was on the board of the nonprofit organization from 1990-1998, serving as a secretary, vice president and then president in 1998.

Attempts to reach acting President Thomas Taylor of the United Way board were unsuccessful Thursday.

"Board members do not discuss personnel matters or anything that disturbs the good work that the United Way does," board member Alison Hagerstrom said late Thursday afternoon that, Morgan said her 60-hour work weeks in the 40-hours-per-week position were to look out for the people helped by the United Way. She and the board may not have always agreed on matters, but the end results got them where they needed to be, she added.

This past campaign raised $405,000, which is more than $10,000 over the goal, she said. In fact, the last three campaigns have exceeded the goal, she added, noting the tough economic times.

"I'm glad that I had the opportunity to do the job. I love this community. We've lived here all our lives, and I believe so much in what the United Way does. It has a positive impact on so many people," Morgan said.

She added that there are so many more people who ask for help now than in the past, and with all the state and federal cuts, agencies are hurting more now, too.

In her position, Morgan was very visible within the community serving on the Chamber of Commerce board, in the Downtown Business Association and involved in committees through the hospital and other organizations, she said.

Morgan said she will have to sign up for unemployment benefits.

Before working for United Way, she spent 25 years with Forsters manufacturing plants in Strong and Wilton, 20 of them in the human resources department, she said. The company manufactured wooden clothespins, toothpicks and croquet sets, and plastic cutlery, clothespins and other items at its four locations. At one time, it had more than 700 employees across Maine, she said.

Her position with the company was eliminated in February 2003, and two months later she was hired by United Way, she said.

Now, she's facing an uncertain future.

"I'm just staring off into space, trying to collect my thoughts," she said Thursday evening.

Staff Editor Mary Delamater contributed to this report.