Below is information about Sons of Liberty SAR members who have passed away. This list is incomplete. If you have information about a member of our chapter, please contact us and let us know what info you have that we can include here.
Donald Laurence Buck
1933-2024
Joined in 2016, Patriot Ancestor Nathan Buck
James Charles McHargue
1947-2024
Joined in 1994, Patriot Ancestors Nathan Gaylord & Enos Atwater
First President of Sons of Liberty Chapter, served 1996-1997
Obituary from Los Angeles Times September 22, 2024
also on Legacy as of November 2025
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.
Stephen Sicard
1927-2020
Joined in 2020, Patriot Ancestor Abraham Poor
obituary on Legacy in November 2025
July 20, 1927 – July 29, 2020 Stephen Sicard, a fifty-year resident of Pasadena, CA at 655 S. Madison Ave., passed away July 29, 2020 of natural causes. He was 93 years and 9 days old. Born in New York City, NY on July 20, 1927 to George G. Sicard and Dorothy (Cole) Sicard, he grew up in New York, with his mother, and summered on Cape Cod, with his father. He regarded himself a New Yorker by birth, but called Cape Cod home. In his youth, “Skipper” loved racing his sailboat, Tonto, against his Hyannis Port rivals, or cruising aboard The Lone Ranger with his father. He attended Hotchkiss School in Hartford, CT. Upon graduating in July 1945, he enlisted in the US Navy. He served proudly in the Pacific aboard the fleet oiler, USS Manatee, ferrying bunker oil from Bahrain to the Pacific theater, until honorably discharged on August 28, 1946. He said he grew up that year in the Navy. The experience shaped him as a man. It was a cherished time in his life. Upon returning from the Navy, Stephen got a first-rate education from Yale University, and graduated with a BA in Literature in 1951. After graduating Yale, he went to work for McGraw-Hill Publishers, New York, as a salesman in their nascent text film division. He became a pioneer in the evolution of education through the use of audio-visual media. Stephen made a career selling educational films to schools and libraries, and earned a well-respected reputation. To the uninitiated, he was a traveling salesman. To educators, as he drove across the country, year after year, calling on teachers, administrators and librarians, he was a latter-day Johnny Appleseed. He loved it. On a call to the Fullerton Public Library, he noticed the librarian, June Harris, was no longer wearing a wedding ring, and inquired about it. Stephen was in the market for a wife and a family. The timing was auspicious. In July 1967, the two married, and Stephen became stepfather to three teenage children, long since PAST cute and cuddly. As it happens, it worked out very well. They became a loving family. Stephen was a man of wry wit and humor. A generous man with many friends. He loved cigars, music, Star Trek, and was an avid sports fan. He was particularly fond of watching baseball and golf. In 1969, after a falling out with Kingman Brewster Jr., then President of Yale University, Stephen forswore/renounced his allegiance to his alma mater. Now a southern California resident in search of a college to support and root for, he chose USC, the era’s number one sports powerhouse. And so, he became a Trojan fan(atic). In 1973, he was honored by a broad association of California teachers, educators, administrators and librarians who shared a passion for advancing the use of audio-visual media in education. Stephen was designated a “Tiger” for his exemplary dedication, effort and commitment to the cause. It was the highest award to be accorded by one’s peers. He was forever deservedly proud. Stephen was an adherent of the teachings of Ernest Holmes, founder of the Church of Religious Science. He began to grow his faith at the Pasadena Church of Religious Science, where he studied to become a practitioner. As a practitioner, he lent spiritual support and comfort to others, and cultivated many lifelong friends. In later years, he took his membership to the Founders Church of Religious Science, in Los Angeles. Based on a long and illustrious family tree of original settlers and patriots, Stephen was welcomed by the Sons of Liberty Chapter as a member of the Sons of the American Revolution. Membership was extended subsequent to rigorous research and documentation. Stephen is survived by his stepsons, Bruce Harris and Bret Harris, stepdaughter, Bradlee Snow, son-in-law Michael Snow, five grandchildren and five great-grandchildren. His laugh, humor, stories, and presence will be sorely missed. His remains will be interred at the family cemetery in Barnstable, Massachusetts alongside his father and younger sister, Nancy.
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