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

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 wearing a white dinner jacket as he poses with friends on the night of their senior prom in Hawaii. Franklin D. Roosevelt made frequent trips back to Hyde Park, N.Y., throwing picnics or barbecues for former neighbors and friends, and George H.W. Basketball was the great equalizer, he said. (Courtesy Maya Soetoro-Ng ), The life stories, when the presidential candidate tells them, have a common theme: the quest to belong. "All of them were imperfect but all of them loved him fiercely, and I believe he took the best qualities from each of them." The other kids would scrap with him sometimes, but because Obama was bigger and better-fed than many of them, he was hard to defeat. Cook wrote that she saw his perfect woman as 'very strong, very upright, a fighter, a laugher, experienced - a black woman I keep seeing her as'. In 2011, he pleaded no contest to soliciting a prostitute, but Obama has stayed fiercely loyal to his childhood friend. Half the homes were old bamboo huts; half, including the Soetoro house, were nicer, with brick or concrete and red-tiled roofs. We are just such a mixed-up bag of races. But Obama never gave up and his work ethic was second to none on this team. Basketball was a refuge, a place where I made a lot of my closest friends, and picked up a lot of my sense of competition and fair play, he said. Zulfan Adi was one of the neighborhood kids who teased Obama most mercilessly. Barack Obama, Bobby Titcomb, Greg Orme - Bobby Titcomb Photos - Zimbio Obama and his mother joined her new husband, a kind man who later would become a detached heavy drinker and womanizer, family members in Indonesia say. Bendix added that he was not shocked when Obama was elected president. Greg? In a striking snapshot with his grandparents, Stanley smiles proudly while Madelyn hugs him fiercely, as though she doesn't want to let him go forth into a world far from the remote island that for so long had been his home. 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. McLachlin said he survived a severe stroke shortly before Obama was elected president in 2008. When asked about the discrepancy, Obama said in a recent interview, "It might have been an Ebony or it might have been who knows what it was?" And he clearly didn't appreciate that," Orme said. The 1979 photo was snapped inside the home of former classmate, Kelli Allman, who was the prom date of the president's close high schoolfriend, Greg Orme. For the past two weeks, he has been recharging on Oahu after an unpleasant year in the job. Kakugawa explained that he had meant they were playing in the world of the elite people who populated and ran Punahou--famous Hawaiian families like the Doles, owners of the pineapple fortune, or the original developers of Waikiki, the tourist mecca. Or f------ Eskimo." Not many presidents retained friendships from as far back as high school, although George W. Bush had close friends from his prep school days at Andover. "I did say we were playing in their world," he explained, "but that had nothing to do with race. Obama, he said, was especially adept at knowing how to build relationships. He said it puzzles him that, as president, Obama was often accused of failing to reach out to political opponents. . All four were classmates at Punahou School in Honolulu, which Obama has described as 'a prestigious prep school, an incubator for island elites. As much as he may have felt like an outsider at times, Obama rarely seemed to show it. Isnt that sweet? she asked. He was the only foreign child in the neighborhood. We have this tradition to head home to Hawaii for Christmas. After high school graduation Obama went to Columbia University and then Harvard Law School, where he met his future wife, Michelle. John F. Kennedy had his band of brothers from wartime. The U.S. military was expanding on the island of Oahu, home to the new capital of Honolulu. Corky Siemaszko is a senior reporter for NBC News Digital. He thanked "Tut and Gramps," his nicknames for Madelyn and Stanley Dunham, but didn't mention his faraway mother. In an essay about what he wanted to be when he grew up, Obama "wrote he wanted to be president," Sinaga recalled. 'When you're president, everybody wants something from you and only these types of friends are able to simply want your well-being. He and I really clicked. Coaches have recalled how he never went anywhere without a ball. He said that of the three, only Mr. Orme, another Punahou hoops player, was in the gang that Mr. Obama described. His biggest struggles were his feelings of abandonment. In the early 1970s, diplomats and Indonesian businessmen lived there in fancy gated houses with wide paved roads and sculpted bushes. Obama and his. He has ethnic Chinese mother and his father was Polish. 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. While Obama rocketed to political prominence, his friend headed down the troubled road Obama had feared he was following. Since returning to his childhood home this month on vacation, President Barack Obama has spent a good part of most days cloistered with three people whose company puts him at ease. Mr. Ramos was a year ahead of Mr. Obamas Punahou class of 79, but played with him on the basketball team. The sailboat the Manu Kai (bird of the sea, in English) is about to set sail behind him. And when Obama came back for Christmas, he got invited to join the new president at a pickup basketball game. Obama's High School Basketball Coaches, Teammates Remember 'Barry' The night, Obama later wrote, made him furious as he realized that whites held a "fundamental power" over blacks. If you look at our teams, that year I was the only white guy on the starting five. Barack Obama as a baby. "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. The photos appear in the new issue of TIME, which hits news stands Friday. 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. In the six weeks since Obama announced his intention to run for the White House, he routinely has suggested that his diverse background--raised for a time in the Third World, schooled at elite institutions and active in urban politics--makes him the best-suited candidate to speak to rich and poor, black and white, mainstream voters and those utterly disenchanted with the political system. Obama, the son of a black father and white mother, stood out. Still, the story of his early years highlights how politics and autobiography are similar creatures: Each is shaped to serve a purpose. 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. 'We were all cracking up, and everyone was smiling.'. 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. 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." "They own it and we in it. It wasnt until 2008, when Obama was making his first run for president, that they saw each other again at a fundraiser. "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. Outside of their regular vacation activities, the First Couple (along with Vice President Biden and Dr. Jill Biden) released their holiday playlists. He would bring up worldly topics far beyond his years. "They held his hands and feet and said, `One, two, three,' and threw him in the swamp," recalled Adi, who still lives in the same house where he grew up. The reality was less tidy. And on Tuesday, in what's become a yearly tradition, the men and their families gathered for a luau hosted by Titcomb. As he had at the old school, Obama sat in a back corner. I cant tell if someone is Fijian or black.. He took out (Osama) Bin Laden. During her son's earliest years, Obama's mother, whose full name was Stanley Ann Dunham because her father desperately had wished for a boy, attended college at the University of Hawaii. Topolinski laughed when he recalled how they both tried out for the schools football team. But absent from those discussions, they say, was another student then known as Barry Obama. I would never say, ah, that didnt happen, said Hale. "He was built like a bull. Their new neighborhood was only 3 miles to the west, but a world away. We played a lot of playground ball.. Millions of American teenagers will go to proms this year. Some of these discrepancies are typical of childhood memories -- fuzzy in specifics, warped by age, shaped by writerly license. Ramos is most often referred to in stories about his relations with the president as a businessman. One of his incredible legacies will be how he modeled being a family man. U.S. President-elect Barack Obama and friend Greg Orme wait to warm 14:27 GMT 23 May 2013 Instead, the chemicals had peeled off much of his skin, leaving him sad and scarred, Obama recalled. Yet no such Life issue exists, according to historians at the magazine. We had great vibes between us, she told TIME. 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. Marty Nesbitt, one of Obama's friends from . The president turns 53 on Monday. Once parked, they 'turned up their stereos playing Aerosmith, Blue Oyster Cult and Stevie Wonder, lit up some sweet-sticky Hawaiian buds and washed it down with green bottled beer (the Choom Gang preferred Heineken, Becks, and St. Pauli Girl).'. Made a strong case for them.. Obamas prom pictures released. The idea that his biggest struggle was race is [bull]." Barry was a very confident player who liked to drive to the basket. 'We had great vibes between us.'. Every time out hed come over and chat with me about my stroke, my health, he said. "Looking back now, I'd say he really is kind of the perfect combination of all of them," said his half sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng. Known as Ann throughout her adult life, she kept to herself. He posed in lifeguard stands. Orme would stay for the games. 'You are extremely sweet and foxy, I don't know why Greg would want to spend any time with me at all!' Obama was also known on campus for his basketball skills, and was sometimes called 'Barry O'bomber' for his jump shot. You have reached your limit of 4 free articles. "But it wasn't a race thing," he said. They were. "Like being black was a funny costume in and of itself," recalled Smith, now a doctor who specializes in geriatrics in California. The foursome, according to the Associated Press, teed off with another eight players. He describes making friends easily, becoming fluent in Indonesian in just six months and melding quite easily into the very foreign fabric of Jakarta. More than 40 interviews with former classmates, teachers, friends and neighbors in his childhood homes of Hawaii and Indonesia, as well as a review of public records, show the arc of Obama's personal journey took him to places and situations far removed from the experience of most Americans. I would go out there and be the only white person. They were like brothers, says Allman. For most of their high school years, Orme and Obama lived and loved basketball, even if their hours of practice never translated into much playing time on game day. I dont know why people have slammed him like that, said Maurer. One of the neatest things is that he has promoted family, he said. The White House said Obama's foursome included childhood friends Bobby Titcomb, Greg Orme and Michael Ramos. 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 . "He had a pretty good shot and really handled the ball well.. The Los Angeles Times weighed in the other day. The three men - Mike Ramos, Bobby Titcomb and Greg. Hes not like that.. You need to find Greg Orme, instructed Obamas old basketball coach, Chris McLachin. Then, one day about a year after he had arrived, Obama was gone. 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." Topolinski said neither he nor Obama were stars on their high school team. Greg Orme Photos and Premium High Res Pictures - Getty Images So far, this process has not yielded anything especially damaging to Obamas candidacy. They have a different level of affection for you than friends you meet later in life. Far less is known about Obama's buddies, of course, than about the president himself. I am in poor health.. Bailey, who coached Obama during his junior year and now runs an ambulance service, said young Barry was a "gym rat. Others are more skeptical that the boy known as Barry felt the angst described by Barack. They sought out parties, especially at the military bases on the island, where African-Americans would be in attendance. We were all cracking up, and everyone was smiling, says Allman. (D-Hawaii), a close friend of Obama . The Latest: Obamas, friends tour Hawaii Islamic arts center "Suddenly we asked, `Where's Barry?' The fourth person in the picture is Obama's date,Megan Hughes. The Latest: Vacationing Obama dines at Hawaii restaurant He'd pick them up if they fell down,'' Darmawan recalled. Mr. Obamas concern, Mr. Axelrod said, was for Mr. Titcomb, whose arrest was international news because he happened to be Barack Obamas friend.. Asked Saturday about Kakugawa's recollections, the Obama campaign declined to make the senator available. 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.. It can be very racially hostile, especially if youre white or black. Those are qualities a president should have. Obama spending long holiday weekend in Southern California But Kakugawa, a convicted drug felon, said Saturday that he had never been the "prototypical angry black guy" that Obama portrays. Obama's highs school pals in Hawaii: Mike Ramos, Bobby Titcomb, Greg Orme Their photos are more likely to be stored on Facebook than in a shoe box. 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. Obama never became terribly close with the children of the new school--this time a predominantly Muslim one--where he was enrolled. 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. 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. Among his supporters, his likability and credibility have only been boosted by his stories of being an outsider trying to fight his way in. The Obamas did skip Hawaii in 2007 and instead the friends joined Mr. Obama in wintry Iowa for the January 2008 presidential caucuses. He was a good player inside and out, Orme recalled. '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.'. He said he does recall long, soulful talks with the young Obama and that his friend confided his longing and loneliness. As is usual when on the island, the president has been far from political advisers and hangers-on, and has instead spent time with the high school friends who have come to be known collectively, if inaccurately, as the Choom Gang. When his mother, a woman said to have been born with a keen sense of wanderlust, announced she was returning to Indonesia, Obama, then a teenager, asked to stay in Hawaii, according to Soetoro-Ng, 36, who still lives in Honolulu. But he seemed to have coped pretty well.. "In the absence of his father, there was not a kinder, more understanding man than Stanley Dunham. After a recent lunch with a reporter, he winked at a table of faculty-lounge colleagues and joked, This one is with Playgirl.. In Hawaii, Media Surfs Obama's Past - POLITICO "He would protect the smaller ones." The Presidency Can't Stop Obama's "Golf Tradition" - Townhall Among U.S. presidents, Obama is not alone in carving out time regularly to reconnect with his roots. You really deserve better than clowns like us; you even laugh at my jokes!. HONOLULU (AP) The Latest on President Barack Obama family vacation in Hawaii (all times local): 10 p.m. President Barack Obama and his family dined with friends Wednesday night to cap off another day of their Hawaii getaway. Though Orme spent most afternoons with Obama and considered him one of his closest friends, he said Obama never brought up issues of race, never talked about feeling out of place at Punahou. On prom night, the pair double-dated. As a result, the handful of black students at Punahou informally banded together. With his friends, he would drive the Choomwagon, a Volkswagen microbus, to Mount Tantalus, biographer David Maraniss wrote. But asked what he believes Obamas biggest accomplishment was, he had a ready answer. The comments below have not been moderated, By Oblivious to all of this was a perpetually smiling toddler the entire family called Barry. Obama's high school yearbook note to his best friend's girlfriend Pothead. And a young, iconoclastic white woman who had defied the social mores of the day by marrying a dashing black man from Kenya was coping with the fact that her new husband essentially had abandoned her and their young child in 1963 to study at Harvard. When youre on a school team, theres more discipline involved, he said. He added: "I can't say that I've avoided all, or any, of these hazards successfully." Some of the Betawi children threw rocks at the open Catholic classrooms, remembered Cecilia Sugini Hananto, who taught Obama in 2nd grade. 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. Vanity Fair is coming soon. As it made its way over the mountain pass, he took in views of the lush, green and misty Koolau mountains. 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. He knew the really small apartment that Mr. Obama lived in with his grandparents and what a talker Gramps was. After their relationship, she went on to marry a Serbian Boxer named Bob Bozic who once tried to rob $60,000 from a bank. Ann and the boy lived with the Dunhams in Honolulu until Obama was 6. 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. 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. 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. So did Maurer, who is now a pastor in Houston. Obama confirmed in an interview earlier this month that the Ray character in "Dreams" actually is Kakugawa. 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. ", We would be like, Hey lets go to the beach, Bendix recalled. Then there's the copy of Life magazine that Obama presents as his racial awakening at age 9. He struggled greatly with the foreign language, she said, and with his studies as a result. The perfect tummy control bodysuit, a popcorn gadget, more bestsellers starting at $8. 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. Arkansas is filled with people still burned from their interactions with the national news media, which descended on the state during Bill Clintons 1992 campaign and stayed for his presidency, continuing to poke and prod at his business and personal dealings. She mixed encouragement to keep up his grades with laments about American politics. But he wanted to make everybody happy." I was certainly oblivious to a lot of what he references, Hale said in an interview. Obama is playing golf with three of his friends, Mike Ramos, Bobby Titcomb and Greg Orme. He played several rounds on the nine-hole course with Bobby Titcomb and Greg Orme, childhood friends from Hawaii who flew in to meet the president. He is unyielding in the things he believes in., I think hes done an unbelievable job as president, he said. 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. But it was on the court in the off-season that Obama seemed to be even happier. 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. Mr. Titcomb was golfing with the president within hours of the Obamas Dec. 21 arrival on Oahu. Many of the men were black. A spokeswoman for People said the reporter, West Coast correspondent Maureen Harrington, did not take the list. The Latest: Obamas, friends tour Hawaii Islamic arts center Obama Golfs With Childhood Friends In California - CBS Sacramento On his senior yearbook page, he left behind these words: We go play hoop.. "Did you know that in Thomas Jefferson's day, and right up through the 1930s, anybody who had the price of tuition could go to Harvard? Obama plays golf with Hawaii friends on Lanai owner's private course Visits With School Pals Are a Touchstone on President's Trips to Hawaii You can see how he was much more sensitive than the other guys, even back then.. 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. And having a Hawaiian in the White House made them all proud. Obama's highs school pals in Hawaii: Mike Ramos, Bobby Titcomb, Greg Orme Through the haze of the 70s, they recall only the rat baller who was always up for a game. Or Japanese. His character, the way he conducts himself, thats always been his footprint. Hes been so gracious to him.. 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. The motorcade arrived in Kapolei around 11:30 a.m. ___ "I brood," Mr. Obama's friend Mr. Ramos said a few years ago. Hawaii friends Bobby Titcomb and Greg Orme, Punahou Academy classmates, were also on hand. 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. To them, the characteristics Obama displayed on the hardwood as one of the Sons of Oahu were evident in the way he handled the daunting responsibilities as leader of the free world. McLachlin said he told Obama he was volunteering for the American Heart Association and the president urged him to keep in touch. He laughed and posed for photos with friends. "It was a really fun, happy time. Some seem to make Obama look better in the retelling, others appear to exaggerate his outward struggles over issues of race, or simply skim over some of the most painful, private moments of his life. I guarantee he would have won a third term if he could have run again. I think if people were one-on-one with him, theyd see things his way Look at how hes treated President-elect Trump. We had to prove ourselves, focus on playing good ball. Murdaugh is heckled as he leaves court, Missing hiker buried under snow forces arm out to wave to helicopter, Incredible footage of Ukrainian soldiers fighting Russians in Bakhmut, Fleet-footed cop chases an offender riding a scooter, Two Russian tanks annihilated with bombs by Ukrainian armed forces, Isabel Oakeshott clashes with Nick Robinson over Hancock texts, Dozens stuck in car park as staff refuses to open gate for woman, Insane moment river of rocks falls onto Malibu Canyon in CA. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our, Digital I remember when we were seniors in high school, somebody said Barry would be on the Supreme Court, he said. One of those kids was Orme, a smart, respectful teenager from a white, middle-class family. Now that life story is being edited by others. "He never verbalized any of that," Orme said during a telephone interview from his home in Oregon. Associated Press It was also how he wanted to be remembered. In fact, the Life article and the photographs don't exist, say the magazine's own historians. But any struggles he was experiencing were obscured by the fact that he had a racially diverse group of friends--many of whom often would crowd into his grandparents' apartment, near Punahou, after school let out. 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. It was pretty typical from there out as far as what happens at prom: the dinner and the dancing and the photos.. We could all be hotheads at times, but he was very diplomatic, he said. 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.