Herbert August Margerum

Born in 1925, just four years before the great Wall Street crash, Herb grew up during the depression and came of age in the middle of a world war. The oldest child of Herbert and Loretta Margerum, Herb, like his younger sisters, was a native of Pasadena, CA. He attended USC and graduated from Loyola (now Loyola-Marymount) University after serving as a Navy Medical Corpsman. In 1947 he met Margarite Krause and wed her a year later, beginning a marriage that would last until her death 64 years later. In their early life together, Herb and Margarite would have homes in Los Angeles, Redlands and Maryland. For five eventful years from 1967 to 1972, the couple lived in Manila, Philippines where Herb worked as a civilian in the Personnel office of Subic Naval base. This time was a period of extensive travel throughout the Philippine islands and much of East Asia for them. When they finally returned stateside in 1972, they brought back a trove of items collected during their travels, including their beloved Jimbo, a rhesus macaque monkey that would be a member of their family for the next twenty years.

Their home on Mt. Helix would be their sole residence for the next fifty years when they weren't travelling. Herb loved to plan major trips and the couple visited every continent and most every country in the world, making friends on tours and cruises that lasted throughout their lives. They circumnavigated the globe three times and traversed both the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Horn more than once each. Of all the destinations he visited, Herb was most impressed by the Russian city of St. Petersburg, which they visited three times within ten years.

For eight years Herb and, sometimes, Margarite, would spend up to two months working gold claims near Nome, Alaska. Prospecting was a hobby that he brought home with him by taking regular trips out to the Mojave desert to dry wash for gold. He served a term as president of the Southwestern Prospectors and Miners Association (SPMA) and worked with his fellow members to bring education about geology and California history to school children of the San Diego county area.

Herb had the gift of being able to talk to anybody and it served him well in both business and in forging friendships. He was generous, as evidenced by the long list of charities he donated to regularly. And he remained a devout lifelong Catholic and served as an usher at St. Martin's of Tours Church in La Mesa for most of the later half of his life.

Herb's family wishes to extend their gratitude to the many people that have reached out to say how he touched their lives and shared how much he will be missed.