Charles Henry McDougall Jr.

1922 - 2016

Charles Henry McDougall, Jr.
1922 ~ 2016
Charles Henry McDougall, Jr. passed away peacefully in his sleep on October 3, 2016, in Boise, Idaho. Charles was born in Brooklyn, New York but was transplanted to Chicago, Illinois at an early age. He was a precocious youngster and began a lucrative 7 year career as a child radio actor at the age of ten performing on such programs as Little Orphan Annie. After graduating from Evanston High School, he headed west to the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California where he studied Geology until WWII interrupted his education.
The next phase of his life was spent piloting blimps off the coast of South America searching for German submarines. When reminiscing, he recalled his Naval career with profound fondness. A video and transcript of his recollections of this time are available at The Library of Congress Veterans History Project website.
Charles married Jean Herzberger of Pasadena, on August 20, 1943, in Virginia Beach, Virginia. After the war, he returned to Caltech and graduated in 1946 as a math major. He immediately began his career at Sears in Los Angeles where he initiated and managed the data center for the Pacific Coast Territory. He and Jean spent a few years at Sears headquarters in Chicago in the early 1960s, affording him an opportunity to enjoy his boyhood home once again.
Charles and Jean welcomed a daughter, Barbara, in 1944 and later a son, Scott, completed their family in 1948.
Charles was known as an accomplished storyteller, bogey golfer, avid reader, fast driver, loving father, grandfather and great-grandfather. He enjoyed fine red wine, Caesar salad with extra anchovies, cracked crab, European travel, especially in Italy and France, serving a year as the director of the Annual Fundraising Drive for his beloved Alma Mater Caltech, hiking the Sierras with his family, collecting butterflies and geodes, managing the Playreaders at Oakmont, CA, cheering for the Los Angeles Dodgers when in LA, and then for the Giants after moving to Santa Rosa in his retirement, and for the Bruins of UCLA, not necessarily in that order.
Charles lost his beautiful and loving wife Jean in 2000 after 57 years of marriage. He earlier lost two brothers in their infancy, and another brother on D-Day, 1944. He leaves behind his daughter, Barbara McLaughlin (James) and his son, Scott McDougall (Carol) of Boise Idaho; five grandchildren: David, Chris, Erica, Kylie and Jeff; and seven great-grandchildren: Brittany, Matthew, Caylee, Ashlee, Hayden, Dylan and Nora. He will be greatly missed by his loving companion, JoAn Chestnut of Oakmont, CA.
His family wishes to thank Terri and Jim of Abode Hospice for their care and support of our father during his final months.
At his Sears reunions, referred to by attendees as "Debacles," the participants traditionally sang the "Annie Song" at the closing dinner. "ARF" says Sandy. See you on the radio, Dad.