greg orme obama's friend greg orme obama's friend

He and I really clicked. He always made time to see his old coach I didnt play him as much as I should have and he had every right to say 'Ill show you coach.' "But looking back now I can see he was seeking more from those guys than that. But Furushima, too, is learning to be on guard around the press. Last year, a book delved into his teenage years and claimed that Obama and his friends formed The Choom Gang - slang for smoking marijuana - in which he invented inhaling techniques and rode a car called the Choomwagon. In fact, it is surprising, based on interviews with more than two dozen people who knew Obama during his nearly four years in Indonesia, that it would take a photograph in a magazine to make him conscious of the fact that some people might treat him differently in part because of the color of his skin. Our second string should be playing more.'" Hes not like that.. One of those friends, Neil Abercrombie, then a graduate student in the sociology department, frequently would see young Obama around town with his grandfather Stanley, whom Obama called "Gramps." Adept at nailing long jump shots, Obama was called "Barry O'Bomber" by teammates. Kelli Allman is the pretty redhead pictured in the photo. They're not his wife and daughters, who came with him, but a trio of pals whose friendship dates back to Obama's high school days in Hawaii. He said he does recall long, soulful talks with the young Obama and that his friend confided his longing and loneliness. 'We were all cracking up, and everyone was smiling.'. In a May 21, 2008 Sports Illustrated interview, Obama spoke of the importance of basketball in his life. "He had a pretty good shot and really handled the ball well.. "We live in a world of bullies and the U.S. has been bullied around. The havoc time wreaks on fashion spares no one, not even the president of the United States. 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 . The photos appear in the new issue of TIME, which hits news stands Friday. He thanked "Tut and Gramps," his nicknames for Madelyn and Stanley Dunham, but didn't mention his faraway mother. Obama and his family have . But I was pretty wrapped up in my own world back then.. I remember when we were seniors in high school, somebody said Barry would be on the Supreme Court, he said. 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. But spokesman Bill Burton said Obama "stands by his recollections of these events as related in his book." He is unyielding in the things he believes in., I think hes done an unbelievable job as president, he said. Mr. Obamas concern, Mr. Axelrod said, was for Mr. Titcomb, whose arrest was international news because he happened to be Barack Obamas friend.. We were all cracking up, and everyone was smiling, says Allman. When kids teased him, Obama yelled back, "Curang, curang!" Right: Obama wrote the above note in Allmans yearbook at the end of his senior year in 1979. Once content to join their parents for outings to the aquarium or to get shave ice, Sasha and Malia are now more independent. He learned to adapt to unfamiliar territory. The handful of black students who attended Punahou School in Hawaii, for instance, say they struggled mightily with issues of race and racism there. "I went to those parties up at Schofield but never saw him at any of them." In 2006, Mr. Obama used the family Christmas holiday there to decide whether to run for president. He's lived in Colorado, but was listed as a North Carolina resident when in 2012 he attended a state dinner at the White House that Obama held for British Prime Minister David Cameron. But we never talked race." Obamas prom pictures released. As he had at the old school, Obama sat in a back corner. He rode a bright blue tricycle with red, white and blue streamers dangling from the handlebars. Throughout his youth, as depicted in his first book, he always found ways to meld into even the most uninviting of communities. Her date was Greg Orme, Obama's best friend. He took out (Osama) Bin Laden. In fact, the Life article and the photographs don't exist, say the magazine's own historians. 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. But Kakugawa, in the interview Saturday, said Obama's recollection of that conversation was mistaken. Of course, Obama embraced the image of the athlete, dribbling a ball to school and between classes. He was always very calm, very level-headed, very rational. On page 271 of the 1979 Oahuan, Obama's entry reflects the crossroads he found himself at as he prepared for life beyond Hawaii. One of his incredible legacies will be how he modeled being a family man. 'We had great vibes between us.'. It was a really fun, happy time. As you know, he made getting better health care for Americans one of his missions.. 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. He recently played golf with his boyhood friend on a return to Hawaii, and the president also invited him to his 49th birthday party in. 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. The White House said Obama's foursome included childhood friends Bobby Titcomb, Greg Orme and Michael Ramos. The article included photos of a black man who had destroyed his skin with powerful chemical lighteners that promised to make him white. And when tempers flared, Barry was the peacemaker. The three men Mike Ramos, Bobby Titcomb and Greg. (D-Hawaii), a close friend of Obama . Now they mainly just golf more than 30 hours in six outings this vacation and trash-talk, just like in the old days. He was loving and generous." 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. Barack Obama, #23, during his senior year at Punahou School, Honolulu. The White House says Obama teed off Saturday at the nine-hole course at the Sunnylands retreat in Rancho Mirage with childhood friends Bobby Titcomb, Greg Orme and Michael Ramos. 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. 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. Its good for me, pre-Alzheimers, to try and remember this stuff, he said, struggling to recall something other than Obamas love for basketball and his improbable hook shot. "He didn't say what country he wanted to be president of. Titcomb, who golfed another two days with Obama this month before the others got into town, was a year behind Obama at Punahou. Still, Bendix said, his old pal should have been a starter at Punahou and insisted he was not just being loyal to an old friend. It was very important to me all the way through my teenage years.. Get-togethers in the decades after high school were rare as the men built careers and families, although Mr. Ramos, Mr. Titcomb and Mr. Orme attended the Obamas Chicago wedding in 1992. Obama Hits Russia, the Gym and the Beach Thursday, Dec. 29 Genevieve Cook, an elementary school teacher, and Obama met at a Christmas party in the East Village in 1983. "He lived across the street from school and before classes hed shoot baskets on the outside courts, then at lunch hed shoot more baskets, then Id have him for three hours, then hed go home, eat supper, and then be outside again shooting baskets.. And he frequently made peace--even allies--with the very people who angered him most. He was a younger black man looking for guidance." His wife and daughters are skiing in Colorado. Or Japanese. Yet those who knew him disputed that during recent interviews. Obama spent the weekend in California after meeting Friday at a resort with Jordan's king. Likewise for Mr. Obama, it seems. 'When you're president, everybody wants something from you and only these types of friends are able to simply want your well-being. Young Barack Obama in a 7th grade photo in 1974 at Punahou School, Honolulu, Hawaii. We have this tradition to head home to Hawaii for Christmas. Hes off the grid, said Hale, who is now the schools head basketball coach. ---------- Kirsten Scharnberg reported from Honolulu and Kim Barker from Jakarta, Indonesia; Tribune staff reporter Ray Gibson contributed to this report. A member of the varsity squad, though not a starter, Obama and his teammates brought Punahou the state championship in 1979, his senior year. He said they adored his slam-dunking style and no-look passing, but their coaches were not fans. But, said Mr. Ramos, who is in the process of a divorce, We probably spent more time talking about my situation than we did about his., Visits With School Pals Are a Touchstone on Presidents Trips to Hawaii, https://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/04/us/politics/visits-with-school-pals-are-a-touchstone-on-presidents-trips-to-hawaii.html, opposite sides of the debate over crime and policing, prohibiting the use of the gender-neutral term in government documents, an array of forces has bolstered this groups presence in Congress and state legislatures. Obama, too, was about to journey far from these familiar shores. Known as Ann throughout her adult life, she kept to herself. , updated I think if people were one-on-one with him, theyd see things his way Look at how hes treated President-elect Trump. She also shared a complimentary note that Obama had written in her high school yearbook. The foursome, according to the Associated Press, teed off with another eight players. "He was built like a bull. "His friends called him `Negro,' " Darmawan said. Corky Siemaszko is a senior reporter for NBC News Digital. His middle school yearbook captures the multiracial mood that many Hawaiians say has always defined the Aloha spirit. In front of a chalkboard with Mixed Races of America written in a students hand, Obama waved the peace sign for the camera. By But twice that year the group gathered in Hawaii in August before the Democratic National Convention and in December after Mr. Obamas election. In the early 1970s, diplomats and Indonesian businessmen lived there in fancy gated houses with wide paved roads and sculpted bushes. When it rained, Obama and his pals went bowling, instead. I cant tell if someone is Fijian or black.. Most of his teachers and friends express sorrow that they did not know of Obamas racial anguish or inner demons. HONOLULU (AP) The Latest on President Barack Obama's annual two-week vacation in Hawaii (all times local): 4 p.m. Maurer, who mostly played guard, said he and Obama were no slouches but they were on teams with some really strong jocks. A spokeswoman for People said the reporter, West Coast correspondent Maureen Harrington, did not take the list. And like Obama, he found his place on the basketball court. So did Maurer, who is now a pastor in Houston. You really deserve better than clowns like us; you even laugh at my jokes!. ", Ive known Barry since the fifth grade, he said. They have a different level of affection for you than friends you meet later in life. This article originally appeared in the May 23, 2013 edition of TIME magazine underneath the title, Obamas Grand Old Party. To subscribe to TIME, click here. Bobby Titcomb Photos Photos - US President Barack Obama repares to putt on the 18th green as friend Greg Orme retrieves his ball and Darell Harrington (2nd R) and Bobby Titcomb (R) look on at the . The sailboat the Manu Kai (bird of the sea, in English) is about to set sail behind him. Instead we are producing Richard Nixons." Now that life story is being edited by others. He was probably studying them and learning from them. "They were like brothers," says Allman. "And we were told he had already moved away." I was certainly oblivious to a lot of what he references, Hale said in an interview. The three men - Mike Ramos (right), Bobby Titcomb (not pictured) and Greg Orme (left) - are among the few people still in Obama's life who knew him long before he was famous. President Obama may have had a tough couple of weeks, but newly-released images will remind him of his more carefree days. Yet even Obama has acknowledged the limits of memoir. For me its the unconditional love, its the nontransactional nature of the relationship that enduring quality that is something that I really value, he said. 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. Among his supporters, his likability and credibility have only been boosted by his stories of being an outsider trying to fight his way in. 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. I really admire that.. IE 11 is not supported. In Hawaii, our diversity defines us, it doesnt divide us, said Rep. Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii), a close friend of Obamas father in graduate school in the early 60s. "One of us said that being the different guys in the room had awakened a little bit of empathy to what he must feel all the time at school. All say he was teased more than any other kid in the neighborhood--primarily because he was bigger and had black features. 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. So far, it has been a narrative spun almost entirely on Obamas terms and in his own words -- most prominently in his bestselling memoir, Dreams From My Father.. "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. "He was very intelligent and witty. 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. "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. "In the absence of his father, there was not a kinder, more understanding man than Stanley Dunham. "He's not like that." Mr. Ramos was a year ahead of Mr. Obama's Punahou class of '79, but played with him on the basketball. So we'd get three kids together to fight him," recalled Yunaldi Askiar, 45, a former neighborhood friend. The tenacity and determination Obama showed to make his high school basketball team was an early indicator of the greatness to come. They divorced after seven years of marriage and have a daughter. I know that was hard for him.". "He liked drawing Spider-Man and Batman," said another friend, Widiyanto Hendro Cahyono, 46. 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Now lots of people are interested in helping graduates of Punahou School jog their foggy memories, trolling for revelations about a young man who spent much of his time that season riding the bench. After graduating in 1979, Maurer wound up at Stanford where he made the team as a walk on and found God. (Courtesy Maya Soetoro-Ng ), The life stories, when the presidential candidate tells them, have a common theme: the quest to belong. The three men - Mike Ramos, Bobby Titcomb and Greg. Through the haze of the 70s, they recall only the rat baller who was always up for a game. The president was returning to the White House on Monday. We are no longer accepting comments on this article. He also thanked the "Choom Gang," a reference to "chooming," Hawaiian slang for smoking marijuana. Im a Republican, but Ill endorse Barry for anything he wants, said Tom Topolinski, who backed his old buddy twice and voted this time for Trump. But Kakugawa, a convicted drug felon, said Saturday that he had never been the "prototypical angry black guy" that Obama portrays. Hopefully now that hes done well get to see each other more, he said. In December 2006, as Mr. Obama decided on his first presidential campaign, the friends talked about how the race would complicate their next getaway. After years during which the friends grew apart, Mr. Obama reconnected with Mike Ramos, Bobby Titcomb and Greg Orme a decade ago. If someone is brown, they can be Samoan or Fijian or Tongan. For much of their childhoods, Orme and Obama were more like brothers than buddies, constant companions both on and off the basketball court who even double-dated on senior prom night. He describes making friends easily, becoming fluent in Indonesian in just six months and melding quite easily into the very foreign fabric of Jakarta. The Hawaii holidays became more and more appealing, he said in an interview just after he began his run for president. I would never say, ah, that didnt happen, said Hale. Former playmates remember Obama as "Barry Soetoro," or simply "Barry," a chubby little boy very different from the gangly Obama people know today. Like Mr. Obama, he was of mixed parentage the son of a Filipino father and a Czech mother and his parents were divorced. Standing up for your buddies. "They own it and we in it. Their new neighborhood was only 3 miles to the west, but a world away. Obama, the son of a black father and white mother, stood out. They were like brothers, says Allman. With a trimmed Afro, Hawaiian flower leis around his neck, Obama was surrounded by the disparate people who shaped him. Although the Choom Gang has come to define Mr. Obamas high school circle owing partly to the presidents memoir, Dreams From My Father, and a notation that Mr. Obama made in his senior yearbook thanking the group for good times Mr. Ramos said in an interview after leaving Oahu this week that the phrase does not describe their circle. He is undergoing what some have called the Profile Primary -- which is testing his ability to keep control of his public image, as journalists sketch portraits of the candidate as a young man and comb for contradictions and potential embarrassments in his past. I hope we can keep in touch this summer, even though Greg will be gone.'. On the lower half of the seventh-grade page is the same group, under a heading of Useless Races in America. The joke, it seems, is on intolerance. I wish I would have known that those things were bothering him, or if they did bother him, said Eric Kusunoki, Obamas homeroom teacher from grades nine through 12. We all come from so many backgrounds, we have to get along., Obamas teammates for the most part are careful not to judge an old friend, even if his memories of racial attitudes at Punahou differ from their own. A boy wants to find his place in a family where he is visibly different: chubby where others are thin, dark where others are light. Topolinski said neither he nor Obama were stars on their high school team. Barry spent his days at the Punahou School in Hawaii studying, shooting hoops and goofing off with his friends. According to the book, the characters representing Orme and the other friend asked to leave the party after just an hour, saying they felt out of place. He was the only foreign child in the neighborhood. remembered Ati Kisjanto, 45. TIME Exclusive: President Obamas 1979 Prom Photos. I get one, maybe.. Since 1995, Kakugawa has spent more than 7 years in California prisons and months in Los Angeles County Jail on cocaine and auto theft charges. Third-grade teacher Fermina Katarina Sinaga, now 67, has perhaps the most telling story. 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. When she told him she loved him, he responded with 'thank you', according to Maraniss, and they broke up in May 1985. 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. I don't know why Greg would want to spend anytime with me at all! Greg Orme, a fellow varsity basketball player, was Obamas constant companion. Cook, who was 25, and Obama, then 22, dated for 18 months, passing their time discussing books and cooking. 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By She became estranged from her husband, Barack Obama Sr., after his departure for Harvard and rarely saw the group of friends that they had made at the University of Hawaii. Made a strong case for them.. The 1979 photo was snapped inside the home of former classmate, Kelli Allman, who was the prom date of the pr, Fashion alert! Left: Kelli Allmans OAHUAN 1979 Yearbook. 'You are extremely sweet and foxy, I don't know why Greg would want to spend any time with me at all!' On prom night, the pair double-dated. Furushima paused, then sighed, pointing out how the potential president was prone to drawing a little Afro atop the B and the O on his signature. , updated For much of their childhoods, Orme and Obama were more like brothers than buddies, constant companions both on and off the basketball court who even double-dated on senior prom night. But Orme is a hard man to find. Hawaii friends Bobby Titcomb and Greg Orme, Punahou Academy classmates, were also on hand. The night, Obama later wrote, made him furious as he realized that whites held a "fundamental power" over blacks. But he seemed to have coped pretty well.. Even though Trump is a loose cannon at least he will stick up for what he believes.. Then his young mother, now divorced, met and married an Indonesian student studying at the University of Hawaii. 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. A close friend and track teammate of Kakugawa, John Hagar, also said he was surprised by Obama's description of the character representing Kakugawa as an angry young black man. In his day, he was a better basketball player than a golfer. But the reality of Obama's narrative is not that simple. After their relationship, she went on to marry a Serbian Boxer named Bob Bozic who once tried to rob $60,000 from a bank. As it made its way over the mountain pass, he took in views of the lush, green and misty Koolau mountains. This is the Barry I remember.. We get together for golf, he said. 18:47 GMT 23 May 2013. Far less is known about Obama's buddies, of course, than about the president himself. Basketball was the great equalizer, he said. Like Obama, Topolinski had to straddle a racial divide. Daily Mail Reporter, Images show Obama ahead of his prom night in Honolulu in 1979, The Obamas to return to Martha's Vineyard? There was his mother, Ann, a brilliant but impulsive woman; his grandmother Madelyn, a deeply private and stoically pragmatic Midwesterner; his grandfather Stanley, a loving soul inclined toward tall tales and unrealistic dreams. When Obama was in 4th grade, the Soetoro family moved. They agreed to rendezvous in Hawaii every year for the holidays, and their reunions became regular even as Mr. Obama was busy climbing to senator and president, a path none of them imagined nearly four decades ago and 5,000 miles from Washington. All three live mostly private lives when they're not being photographed with the commander in chief. The teacher, who still lives in Obama's old neighborhood, remembers that he always sat in the back corner of her classroom.