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

Bendix said he and Obama stayed in touch and he was at his 2008 inauguration. The fourth person in the picture is Obama's date,Megan Hughes. She mixed encouragement to keep up his grades with laments about American politics. He was tenacious.. Barry was a very confident player who liked to drive to the basket. So far, this process has not yielded anything especially damaging to Obamas candidacy. The photos and interviews are in the new issue of TIME, which is out on Friday. 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. 14:27 GMT 23 May 2013 (At the request of the Tribune, archivists at Ebony searched their catalogue of past articles, none of which matched what Obama recalled.) He can really relate to people. He attended a college basketball game with the first family the next day, and this week he and his wife hosted their annual barbecue for the other families, including those of the Obamas Chicago friends Eric Whitaker and Marty Nesbitt. 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. After high school graduation Obama went to Columbia University and then Harvard Law School, where he met his future wife, Michelle. This is my man! a delighted Obama said, Maurer recalled. Then, one day about a year after he had arrived, Obama was gone. When youre on a school team, theres more discipline involved, he said. Then and now, Punahou and Hawaii liked to see themselves as more diverse and colorblind than the rest of the nation. 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. But he seemed to have coped pretty well.. Barry did a good job but I think we needed a change," he said. ---------- Kirsten Scharnberg reported from Honolulu and Kim Barker from Jakarta, Indonesia; Tribune staff reporter Ray Gibson contributed to this report. ", We would be like, Hey lets go to the beach, Bendix recalled. All Rights Reserved. If you look at our teams, that year I was the only white guy on the starting five. Associated Press The perfect tummy control bodysuit, a popcorn gadget, more bestsellers starting at $8. (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. 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. , updated He said they adored his slam-dunking style and no-look passing, but their coaches were not fans. Memories of a racial awakening? Barack Obama as a baby. (Courtesy Maya Soetoro-Ng ), The life stories, when the presidential candidate tells them, have a common theme: the quest to belong. The pretty blonde on the right was the future president's prom date. I hadnt seen him for 30 years.. 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. "His friends called him `Negro,' " Darmawan said. But I was pretty wrapped up in my own world back then.. Obama wrote in the lengthy yearbook note. A spokeswoman for People said the reporter, West Coast correspondent Maureen Harrington, did not take the list. Then his young mother, now divorced, met and married an Indonesian student studying at the University of Hawaii. I am in poor health.. Now that life story is being edited by others. 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. In the second term, presidents have often sought refuge from the pressure by disappearing into nature to fish or hunt, said Douglas Brinkley, a presidential historian at Rice University. Obama, his mother and new baby sister, Maya, moved into a small apartment near the school's sprawling, lush campus. 'He and I really clicked,' she told TIME. . The tenacity and determination Obama showed to make his high school basketball team was an early indicator of the greatness to come. Or f------ Eskimo." We have so many tones of brown here. ', The comments below have not been moderated, President Obama waves his veto pen in the face of incoming Republican majority, Americans again name Hillary Clinton the most admired woman in the world and Obama the most admired man (and Princess Kate outranks Elizabeth Warren), Secret Service agents blame White House security lapses on post-9/11 demands to protect more people with less money but lawmakers say agency has been unaccountable for years, Military couple 'not at all' upset that President Obama's golf game had them booted from Hawaii course hours before their weddingas groom boasts he could beat his boss at golf, Pavement where disabled woman gestured at cyclist before fatal crash, TN residents say Jack Daniel's distillery spews black mold, Incredible footage of Ukrainian soldiers fighting Russians in Bakhmut, Pro-Ukrainian drone lands on Russian spy planes exposing location, 'Buster is next!' He knew that." Obama is playing golf with three of his friends, Mike Ramos, Bobby Titcomb and Greg Orme. 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. Hes kind of in and out. And he frequently made peace--even allies--with the very people who angered him most. Isnt that sweet? she asked. When she told him she loved him, he responded with 'thank you', according to Maraniss, and they broke up in May 1985. In the early 1970s, diplomats and Indonesian businessmen lived there in fancy gated houses with wide paved roads and sculpted bushes. One of the neatest things is that he has promoted family, he said. But Furushima, too, is learning to be on guard around the press. "Suddenly we asked, `Where's Barry?' I dont know why people have slammed him like that, said Maurer. Allman also gaveTIME a snapshot of Obamas yearbook entry to her. You have reached your limit of 4 free articles. The article included photos of a black man who had destroyed his skin with powerful chemical lighteners that promised to make him white. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser. Most of his teachers and friends express sorrow that they did not know of Obamas racial anguish or inner demons. We are no longer accepting comments on this article. The three men Mike Ramos, Bobby Titcomb and Greg. But Obama never gave up and his work ethic was second to none on this team. Obama and his. 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. I loved his game," he said. And he would be going to the gym to work on his strength and conditioning.. Mr. Titcomb was golfing with the president within hours of the Obamas Dec. 21 arrival on Oahu. The Obamas did skip Hawaii in 2007 and instead the friends joined Mr. Obama in wintry Iowa for the January 2008 presidential caucuses. Far less is known about Obama's buddies, of course, than about the president himself. Yet no such Life issue exists, according to historians at the magazine. Barry spent his days at the Punahou School in Hawaii studying, shooting hoops and goofing off with his friends. Speaking up for yourself., I gave them more playing time, McLachlin chuckled. He made an appointment to see me one day and he brought along a couple other guys who wanted more playing time, Chris McLachlin recalled. 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 spokesman Bill Burton said Obama "stands by his recollections of these events as related in his book." After graduating in 1979, Maurer wound up at Stanford where he made the team as a walk on and found God. Like Obama, Topolinski had to straddle a racial divide. Some, like Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan, counted later acquaintances among political donors as friends. Of course, Obama embraced the image of the athlete, dribbling a ball to school and between classes. Israella Pareira Darmawan, Obama's 1st-grade teacher, said she attempted to help him learn the Indonesian language by going over pronunciation and vowel sounds. 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. All say he was teased more than any other kid in the neighborhood--primarily because he was bigger and had black features. But he took the high road and showed a lot of integrity. Some of the Betawi children threw rocks at the open Catholic classrooms, remembered Cecilia Sugini Hananto, who taught Obama in 2nd grade. He had friends there, he was comfortable there, and to a kid his age, that's all that mattered." With his friends, he would drive the Choomwagon, a Volkswagen microbus, to Mount Tantalus, biographer David Maraniss wrote. In a new introduction to the reissued edition of "Dreams," he noted that the dangers of writing an autobiography included "the temptation to color events in ways favorable to the writer [and] selective lapses of memory." With Obama just days away from turning over the reins to Donald Trump, Coach Mac and some of the guys young Barry played ball with at their Honolulu prep school reflected on his presidency and their playing years with pride. He said he does recall long, soulful talks with the young Obama and that his friend confided his longing and loneliness. 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. Were the minorities here.. Instead we are producing Richard Nixons." I know that was hard for him.". "You need to find Greg Orme," instructed Obama's old basketball coach, Chris McLachin. 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. "Barry liked to draw heroes." So neither of us ever started and that was hard, he said. Hopefully now that hes done well get to see each other more, he said. 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. When a friend gave him shrimp paste instead of chocolate, he yelled, "Curang, curang!" Barack Obama, #23, during his senior year at Punahou School, Honolulu. 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. Hed tell us to move on if we got into it with another player. He was loving and generous." "It just wasn't a race thing," he reiterated again and again. Right around then, we really started getting into basketball., Obama was all business when it came to "the game. Chris McLachlin is seen at his house on Jan. 4 in Honolulu, Hawaii. Instead, the chemicals had peeled off much of his skin, leaving him sad and scarred, Obama recalled. From TIME's press release on the. The 1979 photo was snapped inside the home of former classmate, Kelli Allman, who was the prom date of the pr, Fashion alert! "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? I would never say, ah, that didnt happen, said Hale. Likewise for Mr. Obama, it seems. Basketball was the great equalizer, he said. 'Many people call Obama aloof, and he hasn't made a lot of friends in Washington,' Brinkley said. She said a woman from People came to visit with her and then walked away with the Punahou reunion list and all its phone numbers. "I brood," Mr. Obama's friend Mr. Ramos said a few years ago. "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. No such photos, no such article. These previously unpublished photos, obtained exclusively by TIME from Obamas schoolmate Kelli Allman (ne McCormack), show a 17-year-old Barack Obama on the night of his senior prom. "They were like brothers," says Allman. He knew the really small apartment that Mr. Obama lived in with his grandparents and what a talker Gramps was. Allman said the two couples sipped Champagne before going to the dance, and then an after-party. 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. It was pretty typical from there out as far as what happens at prom: the dinner and the dancing and the photos.. ', In his memoir, 'Dreams From My Father,' Obama recalled a high school career that was, for the most part, ordinary 'marginal report cards and calls to the principal's office; part-time jobs at the burger chain; acne and driving tests and turbulent desire. All four were classmates at Punahou School in Honolulu, which Obama has described as 'a prestigious prep school, an incubator for island elites. In an essay about what he wanted to be when he grew up, Obama "wrote he wanted to be president," Sinaga recalled. After years during which the friends grew apart, Mr. Obama reconnected with Mike Ramos, Bobby Titcomb and Greg Orme a decade ago. By We have this tradition to head home to Hawaii for Christmas. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser. Every time out hed come over and chat with me about my stroke, my health, he said. I get one, maybe.. Topolinski laughed when he recalled how they both tried out for the schools football team. The White House says Obama is playing golf with some of his longtime friends including Mike Ramos, Greg Orme and Bobby Titcomb. And having a Hawaiian in the White House made them all proud. But it has revealed the vagaries of memory, as well as the ambivalent emotions stirred among old acquaintances when someone they once knew becomes famous. 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.. Obama wasn't shy about advocating for himself and his fellow backup players, Lum said. If this story is eight paragraphs, seven of them go to Greg. The havoc time wreaks on fashion spares no one, not even the president of the United States. Others almost certainly illustrate how carefully the young man guarded the secret of his loneliness from even those who knew him best. These have been the stories told about the first two character-shaping decades of U.S. Sen. Barack Obama's life, a story line largely shaped by his own best-selling memoir, political speeches and interviews. "He had a pretty good shot and really handled the ball well.. Ramadi fell to IS in May, marking a major setback for Iraq and the U.S. His partners matched Monday's team of Greg Orme, Darrell Harrington and Bobby Titcomb, and the foursome spent more than five hours on the course. But asked what he believes Obamas biggest accomplishment was, he had a ready answer. "Not even close," he said, adding that Obama was dealing with "some inner turmoil" in those days. They marked the 10th year of their rendezvous by looking through old photos, Mr. Ramos said, of when the kids were young and the dads had dark hair. And of course, he said, they all the president included reflected on the past year. Now, I think hes a better golfer., Orme and Obama became pals not long after the future president arrived at Punahou as a fifth grader. The idea that his biggest struggle was race is [bull]." College would be his next stop. Thats when we see each other. Obama was also known on campus for his basketball skills, and was sometimes called 'Barry O'bomber' for his jump shot. For the president to be able to be with a group where he can be absolutely relaxed a group that knows him from his youth on, and who he knows are friends with him not because of what he became, but because of who he is is a really comforting and warm thing, said David Axelrod, Mr. Obamas longtime strategist. 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. (Photo by Joaquin Siopack-Pool/Getty Images) Both of them seemed surprised to hear that in "Dreams"--which neither of them had read--Obama writes about routinely going to parties at Schofield Barracks and other military bases in order to hang out with "Ray," who like Anthony and Smith was two years ahead of him in school. McLachlin said he told Obama he was volunteering for the American Heart Association and the president urged him to keep in touch. If young Obama had struggled to find a place at Punahou, it was well hidden on this day as well. He sketched decidedly American cartoon characters during class. ', 'I'd made my share of friends at school, gone on the occasional awkward date,' Obama wrote, 'And if I sometimes puzzled over the mysterious realignments of status that took place among my classmates, as some rose and others fell depending on the whims of their bodies or the make of their cars, I took comfort in the knowledge that my own position had steadily improved.'. ", Ive known Barry since the fifth grade, he said. 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. 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. We had great vibes between us, she told TIME. Cook, who was 25, and Obama, then 22, dated for 18 months, passing their time discussing books and cooking. Hes not like that.. But the reality of Obama's narrative is not that simple. Anyone can read what you share. After a recent lunch with a reporter, he winked at a table of faculty-lounge colleagues and joked, This one is with Playgirl.. So did Maurer, who is now a pastor in Houston. He would bring up worldly topics far beyond his years. Coaches have recalled how he never went anywhere without a ball. The man is staggering and numb but eventually pulls out forgotten dignity from under his flaking coat,/And walks a straight line along the crooked world.. A close friend of Obama's from their teenage years, Greg Orme, spent so much time with Dunham that he, too, called him "Gramps." Obama Hits Russia, the Gym and the Beach Thursday, Dec. 29 He and I really clicked. He even scored a basket," he said. Obamas prom pictures released. 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?" 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. On prom night, the pair double-dated. I guarantee he would have won a third term if he could have run again. His love for Michelle and Sasha and Malia is outstanding. Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy. "At the time, it was about basketball," said Orme, who has remained friends with Obama over the years and who plays basketball with him almost every Christmas when the two return to Hawaii to visit family. , updated The White House says President Obama has been updated on progress made by Iraqi force against the Islamic State group in Ramadi. Orme would stay for the games. Back then, Punahou was a completely open campus, with several basketball courts where 20-something men from Honolulu would come in the late afternoon for what often turned into flashy, highly competitive pickup sessions. They divorced after seven years of marriage and have a daughter. He represented them in a very dignified, respectful way. Mr. Ramos was a year ahead of Mr. Obamas Punahou class of 79, but played with him on the basketball team. It was hard to imagine that he felt that way, because he just seemed happy all the time, smiling all the time, she said. Throughout his youth, as depicted in his first book, he always found ways to meld into even the most uninviting of communities. When kids teased him, Obama yelled back, "Curang, curang!" Their Jakarta neighborhood resembled a village more than the bustling metropolis the city is today. 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. The motorcade arrived in Kapolei around 11:30 a.m. ___ I really admire that.. 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. One of his incredible legacies will be how he modeled being a family man. But Obama did get to play in the game when the school clinched the state title. Although their paths have long since diverged, they've made it a point to gather for frequent reunions, in one of Obama's most visible links to the days when his life was much simpler and his problems more mundane. remembered Ati Kisjanto, 45. 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. 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.