greg orme obama's friend

The night, Obama later wrote, made him furious as he realized that whites held a "fundamental power" over blacks. Barack Obama as a sophomore with the junior varsity basketball team at Punahou School, Honolulu, in 1977. They were joined by two other teenagers - his best friend Greg Orme and date Kelli McCormack. John F. Kennedy had his band of brothers from wartime. I dont want to accuse her of stealing it, but it was on the table when she arrived and it wasnt when she left, said Furushima. Young Barack Obama in a 7th grade photo in 1974 at Punahou School, Honolulu, Hawaii. We are no longer accepting comments on this article. That first year, Mr. Ramos said, I remember coming home from a golf outing and literally starting to cry, so emotional was the contrast he felt between their friendships and the transactional ones he said he had since formed as a businessman. Wearing a white shirt and dark-colored shorts and a baseball hat, President Barack Obama finished 18 holes of golf at the Kapolei Golf Course in Kapolei, Hawaii. 'You really deserve better than clowns like us; you even laugh at my jokes! After a recent lunch with a reporter, he winked at a table of faculty-lounge colleagues and joked, This one is with Playgirl.. "They own it and we in it. Journalistic excavations of a presidential candidates past often turn ugly. Obama is spending the weekend golfing with Punahou School friends Greg Orme, Bobby Titcomb and Mike Ramos ahead of a summit of Southeast Asian leaders at the Sunnylands estate in Rancho. TIME Magazine obtained and published this picture of President Obama the night of his senior prom in Honolulu, Hawaii, in 1979, from his classmate Kelli Allman. In one photo he hugs his beaming sister. And from the first day of 5th grade right up until his graduation in 1979, the young man was one of only a small number of black students at a school heavily populated by the children of Hawaii's wealthy, most of them white and Asian. We had to prove ourselves, focus on playing good ball. (At the request of the Tribune, archivists at Ebony searched their catalogue of past articles, none of which matched what Obama recalled.) Barry was a very confident player who liked to drive to the basket. Rik Smith, a black Punahou student two years older than Obama, remembers a Halloween when white students would dress as slaves, coming to school in tattered clothes with their faces painted black with shoe polish. He can really relate to people. 14:27 GMT 23 May 2013 Millions of American teenagers will go to proms this year. He would carry his books in one hand and his ball in the other," he said. "He would be very helpful with friends. Obama Hits Russia, the Gym and the Beach Thursday, Dec. 29 "It just wasn't a race thing," he reiterated again and again. 'But the rest of it has sharp edges, 'Tho he speaks sweet words and can be open and trusting, there is also that coolness - and I begin to have an inkling of some things about him that could get to me.'. And he frequently made peace--even allies--with the very people who angered him most. Their. The three men - Mike Ramos, Bobby Titcomb and Greg Orme - are among the few people still in Obama's life who knew him long before he was famous. For a reputed loner, Mr. Obama has remained remarkably close to a trio he met as a teenager at Honolulus prestigious Punahou School boys of Hawaiis year-round summer with whom he played basketball, bodysurfed, drank beer and, like so many other young islanders in the 1970s, smoked pot, the choom of that long-ago nickname. In it, he wrote, was an article and two accompanying photographs of an African-American man physically and mentally scarred by his efforts to lighten his skin. He posed in lifeguard stands. Or Hawaiian. Yearbook note Obama left for classmate Tom Topolinski when they graduated in 1979 from the Punahou school. Thats when we see each other. But absent from those discussions, they say, was another student then known as Barry Obama. Even though Trump is a loose cannon at least he will stick up for what he believes.. It took about five hours for the president and his playing partners Bobby Titcomb, Greg Orme, and Darrell . Yet many say they have trouble reconciling their nearly 30-year-old memories with Obamas more recent descriptions of himself as a brooding and sometimes angry adolescent, grappling with his mixed race and the void left by a father who gave him his black skin but little else. The U.S. military was expanding on the island of Oahu, home to the new capital of Honolulu. He describes making friends easily, becoming fluent in Indonesian in just six months and melding quite easily into the very foreign fabric of Jakarta. Here is how some of Obamas former teammates and coaches remember those years: To understand President Obama, you have to understand his Hawaiian roots, Maurer said. Chris McLachlin is seen at his house on Jan. 4 in Honolulu, Hawaii. Allman said Obama didn't date a lot in high school but had plenty of charm. In August, Obama kicked off his 53rd birthday weekend golfing with the three friends in suburban Maryland before heading to Camp David, the presidential retreat in the Catoctin Mountains. 18:47 GMT 23 May 2013. "Like being black was a funny costume in and of itself," recalled Smith, now a doctor who specializes in geriatrics in California. The president was returning to the White House on Monday. Barack Obama, #23, during his senior year at Punahou School, Honolulu. But twice that year the group gathered in Hawaii in August before the Democratic National Convention and in December after Mr. Obamas election. And having a Hawaiian in the White House made them all proud. In his day, he was a better basketball player than a golfer. Some of the Betawi children threw rocks at the open Catholic classrooms, remembered Cecilia Sugini Hananto, who taught Obama in 2nd grade. The havoc time wreaks on fashion spares no one, not even the president of the United States.In a newly unearthed photo published Thursday in TIME magazine, a 17-year-old Barack Obama is seen. His wife and daughters are skiing in Colorado. The White House says Obama is playing golf with some of his longtime friends including Mike Ramos, Greg Orme and Bobby Titcomb. He also was one of the only neighborhood children whose parents enrolled him in a new Catholic school in an area populated almost entirely by Betawis, the old tribal landowning Jakarta natives who were very traditional Muslims. The same as in Washington, Orme said. Topolinski said neither he nor Obama were stars on their high school team. Barack Obama as a baby. It was also how he wanted to be remembered. Hes been so gracious to him.. Obama and his date Megan Hughes, a student at the Hawaii School for Girls at La Pietra, joined Orme at Allmans house, where the two couples sipped champagne before going to the dance and then an after-party. Obamas family is already insulating itself. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our, Digital Hawaii had become a state only two years before Obama's birth, and there were plenty of native Hawaiians still deeply unhappy about it. He was a younger black man looking for guidance." President-elect Barack Obama and friend Greg Orme wait to warm up on the driving range to play golf with friends December 29, 2008 in Kailua, Hawaii.. President-elect Barack Obama hugs friend Greg Orme before a round of golf December 29, 2008 at the Mid Pacific Country Club in Kailua, Hawaii. After graduating in 1979, Maurer wound up at Stanford where he made the team as a walk on and found God. In the 2004 presidential campaign, both John F. Kerry and President Bush were embroiled in disputes over their Vietnam-era records, controversies that were stoked by the conflicting recollections of people who knew them. I think if people were one-on-one with him, theyd see things his way Look at how hes treated President-elect Trump. Obama confirmed in an interview earlier this month that the Ray character in "Dreams" actually is Kakugawa. They got back in touch when she visited New York in 1982, before continuing a long-distance relationship that eventually fizzled out, according to his biographer David Maraniss. Yet no such Life issue exists, according to historians at the magazine. Magazines, Or create a free account to access more articles, TIME Exclusive: President Obamas 1979 Prom Photos. I am in poor health.. After high school graduation Obama went to Columbia University and then Harvard Law School, where he met his future wife, Michelle. From his earliest moments on the national political stage, Obama has presented himself as having two unique qualifications: a fresh political face and an ability to bridge the gap between Americans of different races, faiths and circumstances. But its fun to imagine that in one of those pictures, theres a girl in a pastel dress or a lanky guy in a white sport coat who will end up becoming the leader of the free world. 'Many people call Obama aloof, and he hasn't made a lot of friends in Washington,' Brinkley said. ---------- Kirsten Scharnberg reported from Honolulu and Kim Barker from Jakarta, Indonesia; Tribune staff reporter Ray Gibson contributed to this report. If Obama did show flashes of anger or hurt, according to friends and teammates, it sprang from his lack of minutes on the basketball court more than his angst as a young black man in a multiracial society. In 2011, he pleaded no contest to soliciting a prostitute, but Obama has stayed fiercely loyal to his childhood friend. "We'd all do things together, but Obama was never there," Smith said, adding that they often brought along the few other black underclassmen. The article included photos of a black man who had destroyed his skin with powerful chemical lighteners that promised to make him white. In one family photo before the mother and son moved to Indonesia, Obama walks barefoot on Waikiki Beach, arms outstretched as though embracing the entire beautiful life around him. He said he does recall long, soulful talks with the young Obama and that his friend confided his longing and loneliness. Among U.S. presidents, Obama is not alone in carving out time regularly to reconnect with his roots. The images from 1979 show a grinning 17-year-old Obama in a white suit with his arm around his date, Megan Hughes, before they headed to the party at Punahou School in Honolulu, Hawaii. He took out (Osama) Bin Laden. I always knew he would do something, of course we never expected hed be in the White House, teammate and lifelong friend Greg Orme said. He came across an article that he later would describe as feeling like an "ambush attack." Hed tell us to move on if we got into it with another player. But Kakugawa, in the interview Saturday, said Obama's recollection of that conversation was mistaken. One day while visiting his mother, who was working at the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta, Obama passed time by looking through several issues of Life magazine. "Those were robust years full of energy and cacophony, and she loved all of it," Soetoro-Ng said of her grandmother, who has lived alone since her husband died in 1992. Barack in the Student Life section of Punahou Schools yearbook. 2023 TIME USA, LLC. kscharnberg@tribune.com kbarker@tribune.com, Column: For the Chicago Blackhawks remodel to work, their new house had better be built on a strong foundation, Merrillville food and beverage tax edging closer to reality, Remains found in Rockdale more than 25 years ago identified as Aurora woman, Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information. Pothead. "Not even close," he said, adding that Obama was dealing with "some inner turmoil" in those days. Bush remained pals with men he served with in World War II. Isnt that sweet? she asked. Then there's the copy of Life magazine that Obama presents as his racial awakening at age 9. Furushima said that many of her classmates have expressed dismay at Obamas rendering of the past. Obama, however, was not a part of that group, according to Anthony and Smith. A spokeswoman for People said the reporter, West Coast correspondent Maureen Harrington, did not take the list. Obamas presidential prospects have been fueled in large part by an arresting life story: The son of a Kenyan goatherder, he wrestled with his dual identities to become the first black editor of the Harvard Law Review and a member of the U.S. Senate. Obama, the son of a black father and white mother, stood out. The images from 1979 show a grinning 17-year-old Obama in a white suit with his arm around his date, Megan Hughes, before they headed to the party at Punahou School in Honolulu, Hawaii. "He was just one of those perfect [ethnic] mixes of everything you see in Hawaii." I cant tell if someone is Fijian or black.. But I was pretty wrapped up in my own world back then.. He then wrote down his number, encouraging Allman to give him a call, and signed off 'Barry Obama'. Alan Lum, who later would coach the basketball team at Punahou as well as teach elementary school there, recalled Obama as always being the first to confront coaches when he felt they were not fairly allotting playing time. Obama and his family have been in his native Hawaii since December 20 for the Christmas holiday. You can see how he was much more sensitive than the other guys, even back then.. Only Mr. Titcomb stayed in Hawaii. KAILUA, HI - DECEMBER 29: (AFP OUT) U.S. President-elect Barack Obama and friend Greg Orme (R) wait to warm up on the driving range to play golf with friends December 29, 2008 in Kailua, Hawaii. Obama, who has talked and written so much about struggling to find a sense of belonging due to his mixed race, brushes over this time of his life in "Dreams." (D-Hawaii), a close friend of Obama . He laughed and posed for photos with friends. While the foursome gets together in Hawaii over the holidays each year, Titcomb, Orme and Ramos. Mr. Obama and the others often would visit family members there at Christmas and on occasion the men would meet, but it was not until 2004 that they agreed to gather annually. As Obama's senior year drew to a close, his mother sent him letters from afar, about life in Indonesia and her work there with non-profit groups doing economic development. The reality was less tidy. Barry would be the only black person. "Junkie. He didnt have to see me, but he was a man of his word, he said. Genevieve Cook, an elementary school teacher, and Obama met at a Christmas party in the East Village in 1983. With his friends, he would drive the Choomwagon, a Volkswagen microbus, to Mount Tantalus, biographer David Maraniss wrote. This is my man! a delighted Obama said, Maurer recalled. Obama played basketball at Punahou with Orme, who the alumni magazine says is now a building contractor. "It was a really fun, happy time. You really deserve better than clowns like us; you even laugh at my jokes!. Maybe we could have helped him. "He liked drawing Spider-Man and Batman," said another friend, Widiyanto Hendro Cahyono, 46. I would go out there and be the only white person. McLachlin said he told Obama he was volunteering for the American Heart Association and the president urged him to keep in touch. In another passage from the book, Ray complains that white Punahou girls don't want to date black guys and that he and Obama don't get enough playing time as athletes, speculating that they'd be "treated different if we was white. He even scored a basket," he said. Daily Mail Reporter Corky Siemaszko is a senior reporter for NBC News Digital. Barry did a good job but I think we needed a change," he said. The idea that his biggest struggle was race is [bull]." But asked what he believes Obamas biggest accomplishment was, he had a ready answer. You gotta give him that.. When Obama was in 4th grade, the Soetoro family moved. FILE - In this Dec. 29, 2014 file photo, President Barack Obama, center, walks during a round of golf with Greg Orme, left, and Mike Ramos, on the 18th hole of the Mid Pacific Country Club in . Once again, Stanley and Madelyn Dunham, who had been as much parents as grandparents throughout the young man's life, said he could live with them. Not one of `the brothers' As much as young Obama stood out physically in the classrooms of Indonesia, so, too, did he at Punahou School, the elite private prep academy his mother moved him back to Hawaii to attend. Once content to join their parents for outings to the aquarium or to get shave ice, Sasha and Malia are now more independent. He'd pick them up if they fell down,'' Darmawan recalled. Some of these discrepancies are typical of childhood memories -- fuzzy in specifics, warped by age, shaped by writerly license. He was tenacious.. "The brothers," as Lewis Anthony Jr., an African-American in the class of 1977 put it, hung out together, often talking about issues involving race and civil rights. Increasingly, the reunions have become the focal point of Obama's family vacation in his second term as his teenage daughters spend less and less time at their father's side. I hope we can keep in touch this summer, even though Greg will be gone.'. Dan Hale, the 6-foot-7-inch star center of the 1979 Punahou basketball team, said Obamas depiction of Hawaii as a place where race really mattered hardly resonates with him. His spelling wasnt too good either, he said, referring to the note Obama wrote in his high school year book. On page 271 of the 1979 Oahuan, Obama's entry reflects the crossroads he found himself at as he prepared for life beyond Hawaii. Obama and his family have . So just get the f--- outta my face." And the accounts bear out much of Obama's self-portrait as someone deeply affected by his father's abandonment yet able to thrive in greatly disparate worlds. He has ethnic Chinese mother and his father was Polish. That's where I'd been headed: the final, fatal role of the young would-be black man," Obama wrote in "Dreams." He is 9 years old, living in Indonesia, where he and his mother moved with her new husband, Lolo Soetoro, a few years earlier. All three live mostly private lives when they're not being photographed with the commander in chief. Back in 1979 he was known as Barry and he had a beef with his basketball coach. "Barry's biggest struggles then were missing his parents. Obama has told the story--one of the watershed moments of his racial awareness--time and again, in remarkable detail. Or Japanese. "I went to those parties up at Schofield but never saw him at any of them." The motorcade arrived in Kapolei around 11:30 a.m. ___ "All of them were imperfect but all of them loved him fiercely, and I believe he took the best qualities from each of them." In its reissue after he gave the keynote address at the Democratic convention in 2004, "Dreams from My Father" joined a long tradition of political memoirs that candidates have used to introduce themselves to the American people. Former playmates remember Obama as "Barry Soetoro," or simply "Barry," a chubby little boy very different from the gangly Obama people know today. I think hes done great with all the stuff he inherited, like the recession and the two wars. Maurer, who mostly played guard, said he and Obama were no slouches but they were on teams with some really strong jocks. Memories of a racial awakening? HONOLULU -- Until recently, the players on Hawaiis 1979 state basketball championship team thought their glory days were behind them, consigned to yearbooks and faded newspaper clippings. Most classmates and teachers recall an easygoing, slightly chunky young man, with the same infectious smile he sports today. We are just such a mixed-up bag of races. But Obama did get to play in the game when the school clinched the state title. "Luckily he could swim. Topolinski laughed when he recalled how they both tried out for the schools football team. He remembers one day when young Obama, a hopelessly upbeat boy who seemed oblivious to the fact that the older kids didn't want him tagging along, followed a group of Adi's friends to a nearby swamp. Obama recounts taking two white friends, including Orme, to a party attended almost entirely by African-Americans. Vanity Fair is coming soon. "In the absence of his father, there was not a kinder, more understanding man than Stanley Dunham. TIME Exclusive: President Obamas 1979 Prom Photos. We have had presidents who have not modeled that super well., We had a long basketball career together, Orme recalled in a telephone interview from his home in Eugene, Oregon. "Barry liked to draw heroes." IE 11 is not supported. Another story put forth in "Dreams" as one of Obama's pivotal moments of racial awakening checks out essentially as he wrote it. When she told him she loved him, he responded with 'thank you', according to Maraniss, and they broke up in May 1985. I hadnt seen him for 30 years.. Life without a father It was a complicated time. As he had at the old school, Obama sat in a back corner. ", Ive known Barry since the fifth grade, he said. On his senior yearbook page, he left behind these words: We go play hoop.. So neither of us ever started and that was hard, he said. "But it could be a lonely place. Obama is. He thanked "Tut and Gramps," his nicknames for Madelyn and Stanley Dunham, but didn't mention his faraway mother. Standing up for your buddies. On prom night, the pair double-dated. As he listened, McLachlin never dreamed that one day this determined young man, who had spent most of that season warming the bench while the Punahou High School varsity basketball team was marching on to win the Hawaii state championship, would grow up to be Barack Obama, the 44th President of the United States.