James Charles McHargue

August 26, 1947 - August 14, 2024 James Charles McHargue died on August 14, 2024, in Detroit, Michigan. He was 76 years old.
Jim was born in Los Angeles on August 26, 1947, to Frederick Hanford McHargue and Patricia Eleanora (Brown) McHargue. He was a fifth generation "Angelino," his mother's family having migrated to California in the years after the Civil War. He attended school in Beverly Hills and Van Nuys. In August 1967, during the height of the Vietnam War, he was drafted into the U.S. Army. After training at Fort Ord and Fort Sill, he was assigned to the 25th Infantry Division at Cu Chi District of Saigon in Vietnam. For his two years of combat service in Vietnam he was awarded the Bronze Star and the Republic of Vietnam Gallantry Cross with Palm. In 1969, he was reassigned to the Army Reserves and returned to the U.S.
Jim worked most of his adult life as a commissioned Revenue Officer with the Los Angeles District office of the Internal Revenue Service. He retired in 1997.
In 1984, he married Paula Lynn Sorokin who remained his loving companion until her death in 2019.
Jim and Paula bought and restored a transitional Craftsman house in Angelino Heights, the first historic district in Los Angeles. Their restoration work, especially after a devastating fire, won awards from the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the California Preservation Foundation and the Los Angeles Conservancy. It also led to Jim's appointment by Mayor Richard Riordan to a five-member city design review advisory board. Jim chaired the board for several years, holding twice-a-month hearings and dealing with an enormous workload of restoration and repair in the wake of the devastating 1994 Northridge earthquake.
An avid genealogist and descendant of numerous Colonial American ancestors, Jim was a member of several lineage societies, including the Society of the Cincinnati, Order of the Founders and Patriots of America, Society of Mayflower Descendants, Sons of the American Revolution, Society of the War of 1812, the Aztec Club of 1847, the Order of the First Families of Maryland, of which he was past Governor General, and the Military Order of Foreign Wars, of which he was past California Commander. He was also a member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars.
Closest to Jim's heart was the Society of Colonial Wars in the State of California, which he joined in 1995 on the hundredth anniversary of its founding. He later served as its Governor, as well as holding other offices over the many years of his membership. He was widely acknowledged as the heart and soul of the Society. He carried the torch of the founders and passed it along to the current leadership, mentoring many Governors and officers of the Society and ensuring the continuity of traditions. For his long and dedicated service to the Society, Jim was recognized as a Samuel Victor Constant Fellow, the highest honor the Society can bestow.
Jim was also active in the national organization: the General Society of Colonial Wars. He served as a Deputy Governor General from California and as Secretary General of the national Society from 2022 until his death this year. Jim's sudden and premature death occurred while en route to a General Society Executive Committee meeting at Mackinac Island in Michigan.
Besides genealogy, Jim's passions included photography, collecting vintage cameras, watching classic movies and reading history and biography.
Jim is survived by two brothers, Douglas Hanford McHargue and Richard Franklin McHargue, and several nieces and nephews. He will be interred beside Paula in a private ceremony at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Glendale.