For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser. Corky Siemaszko is a senior reporter for NBC News Digital. WASHINGTON President Obama has called Hawaii his refuge, and so it has been throughout his political life. I am in poor health.. With rain drizzling over Oahu, Obama's motorcade whisked Obama across the island to Titcomb's beachside home in Waialua, about an hour outside of Honolulu on the North Shore. He struggled greatly with the foreign language, she said, and with his studies as a result. If you look at our teams, that year I was the only white guy on the starting five. Bendix said he and Obama learned most of their basketball moves on the playground. 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. ', '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.'. Young Barack Obama in a 7th grade photo in 1974 at Punahou School, Honolulu, Hawaii. Our coaches were much more conservative, he said. It was a really fun, happy time. A youth living in a distant land searches and finds new friends, a new language and a heartbreaking lesson about his identity in the pages of an American magazine. ', 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!' The White House said Obama's foursome included childhood friends Bobby Titcomb, Greg Orme and Michael Ramos. "His friends called him `Negro,' " Darmawan said. 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. But Obama never gave up and his work ethic was second to none on this team. 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. The reality was less tidy. Likewise for Mr. Obama, it seems. 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. Obama's high school yearbook note to his best friend's girlfriend Obama's Prom Photos Are Amazing - BroBible With a trimmed Afro, Hawaiian flower leis around his neck, Obama was surrounded by the disparate people who shaped him. 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. "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. Oblivious to all of this was a perpetually smiling toddler the entire family called Barry. 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. The havoc time wreaks on fashion spares no one, not even the president of the United States. 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. Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy. The president was returning to the White House on Monday. 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. Not as well known is the fact that the many people who raised him were nearly as diverse as the places where he grew up. Hawaii had become a state only two years before Obama's birth, and there were plenty of native Hawaiians still deeply unhappy about it. Aloha Obama: Inside the President's 2015 Hawaiian Holiday Then there's the copy of Life magazine that Obama presents as his racial awakening at age 9. 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. He has ethnic Chinese mother and his father was Polish. The Latest: Obama finishes playing golf with 3 friends | AP News In the early 1970s, diplomats and Indonesian businessmen lived there in fancy gated houses with wide paved roads and sculpted bushes. Hes not like that.. News. Obama and his Punahou School classmates Mike Ramos, Bobby Titcomb and Greg Orme enjoyed a sunny and breezy day on the links. 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. Obama was also known on campus for his basketball skills, and was sometimes called 'Barry O'bomber' for his jump shot. 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 . It was also how he wanted to be remembered. For the past two weeks, he has been recharging on Oahu after an unpleasant year in the job. Hopefully now that hes done well get to see each other more, he said. Bendix said he and Obama stayed in touch and he was at his 2008 inauguration. 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. They have a different level of affection for you than friends you meet later in life. 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. "We'd all do things together, but Obama was never there," Smith said, adding that they often brought along the few other black underclassmen. In his day, he was a better basketball player than a golfer. 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. When a friend gave him shrimp paste instead of chocolate, he yelled, "Curang, curang!" But the reality of Obama's narrative is not that simple. 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. When youre on a school team, theres more discipline involved, he said. I would go out there and be the only white person. Visits With School Pals Are a Touchstone on President's Trips to Hawaii But such solitude has become less and less attainable for presidents in modern times. He took out (Osama) Bin Laden. Barack Obama, Bobby Titcomb, Greg Orme - Zimbio He played on the beach. Obama's 1979 prom photo, yearbook note to 'foxy' friend unearthed A close friend of Obama's from their teenage years, Greg Orme, spent so much time with Dunham that he, too, called him "Gramps." 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. He sketched decidedly American cartoon characters during class. You gotta give him that.. In April 2011, Mr. Titcomb was arrested on a charge of soliciting prostitution in a Honolulu sting operation, but the reunions with the president never stopped. 'We had great vibes between us.'. It was very important to me all the way through my teenage years.. 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. Right around then, we really started getting into basketball., Obama was all business when it came to "the game. 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. 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. 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. But asked what he believes Obamas biggest accomplishment was, he had a ready answer. 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. He was tenacious.. While Obama got saddled with the nickname Barry OBomber, Maurer said he also "got teased a lot for taking hard to make shots.". Others are more skeptical that the boy known as Barry felt the angst described by Barack. 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. 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. He was a good player inside and out, Orme recalled. The 1979 photo was snapped inside the home of former classmate, Kelli Allman, who was the prom date of the pr, Fashion alert! 'Many people call Obama aloof, and he hasn't made a lot of friends in Washington,' Brinkley said. 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. And he frequently made peace--even allies--with the very people who angered him most. I think hes done great with all the stuff he inherited, like the recession and the two wars. 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. When Obama was in 4th grade, the Soetoro family moved. 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. Obama is. 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. He represented them in a very dignified, respectful way. The U.S. military was expanding on the island of Oahu, home to the new capital of Honolulu. It was pretty typical from there out as far as what happens at prom: the dinner and the dancing and the photos.. And he would be going to the gym to work on his strength and conditioning.. President Obama's Prom Date | Inside Edition But he seemed to have coped pretty well.. While Obama rocketed to political prominence, his friend headed down the troubled road Obama had feared he was following. Obama has told the story--one of the watershed moments of his racial awareness--time and again, in remarkable detail. "He challenged the coaches.. 14:27 GMT 23 May 2013 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. Obama plays golf with Hawaii friends on Lanai owner's private course 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. 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. 21:01 GMT 31 Dec 2014. That's where I'd been headed: the final, fatal role of the young would-be black man," Obama wrote in "Dreams." Sheriff: Cleveland man shot after attacking man with hatchet at Morgan County campground Obamas prom pictures released. On this visit alone, Obama has spent more than 22 hours with the group on the lush golf courses that dot the island of Oahu. In December 2006, as Mr. Obama decided on his first presidential campaign, the friends talked about how the race would complicate their next getaway. In his poem, An Old Man, there are glimpses of a tortured adolescent as well as a budding orator. Obama has claimed on numerous occasions to have become fluent in Indonesian in six months. You really deserve better than clowns like us; you even laugh at my jokes!. 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. Orme would stay for the games. Obama spending long holiday weekend in Southern California Then, one day about a year after he had arrived, Obama was gone. After their relationship, she went on to marry a Serbian Boxer named Bob Bozic who once tried to rob $60,000 from a bank. He is unyielding in the things he believes in., I think hes done an unbelievable job as president, he said. The Hawaii holidays became more and more appealing, he said in an interview just after he began his run for president. 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. And once you started playing well, contributing on the court, pretty much the racial aspect goes away.. The tenacity and determination Obama showed to make his high school basketball team was an early indicator of the greatness to come. 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. Their photos are more likely to be stored on Facebook than in a shoe box. 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. The three men Mike Ramos, Bobby Titcomb and Greg. "They own it and we in it. 'You really deserve better than clowns like us; you even laugh at my jokes! Maurer, who mostly played guard, said he and Obama were no slouches but they were on teams with some really strong jocks. In the spring of 1979, Obama's mother and Maya, Barack's younger half sister by almost nine years, flew to Hawaii for his high school graduation. They sought out parties, especially at the military bases on the island, where African-Americans would be in attendance. I really admire that.. If only I had saved that Nerf hoop we used to dunk on. Those of us who were black did feel isolated--there's no question about that." Or Japanese. The experience of being part of a winning team was important to Barry, to all of us.. Isnt that sweet? she asked. The White House says Obama is playing golf with some of his longtime friends including Mike Ramos, Greg Orme and Bobby Titcomb. 2023 TIME USA, LLC. We get together for golf, he said. He added: "I can't say that I've avoided all, or any, of these hazards successfully." Instead, the chemicals had peeled off much of his skin, leaving him sad and scarred, Obama recalled. Allman also gaveTIME a snapshot of Obamas yearbook entry to her. So just get the f--- outta my face." 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. Allman said the two couples sipped Champagne before going to the dance, and then an after-party. I dont know why people have slammed him like that, said Maurer. "He didn't say what country he wanted to be president of. All three live mostly private lives when they're not being photographed with the commander in chief. He came across an article that he later would describe as feeling like an "ambush attack." Now they mainly just golf more than 30 hours in six outings this vacation and trash-talk, just like in the old days. "I never knew, until reading the book later, how much that night had upset him." 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. But after practice theyd hit the public courts. So far, this process has not yielded anything especially damaging to Obamas candidacy. Like Obama, Topolinski had to straddle a racial divide. The Los Angeles Times weighed in the other day. Since arriving more than a week ago, Obama has been out in public with one of his daughters only once, briefly, during a hike. We were all cracking up and everyone was smiling," she told the magazine. And while they did enjoy marijuana, Mr. Ramos acknowledged, we played a lot more basketball than we smoked pot.. 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. Obama admits in "Dreams" that during high school he frequently smoked marijuana, drank alcohol, even used cocaine occasionally. Barack Obama, Bobby Titcomb, Greg Orme - Bobby Titcomb Photos - Zimbio I loved his game," he said. Obama and his. His biggest struggles were his feelings of abandonment. He had friends there, he was comfortable there, and to a kid his age, that's all that mattered." Just as he was the only African-American on the basketball team, he was also the only jock working on the schools literary magazine, Ka Wai Ola. Millions of American teenagers will go to proms this year. While the foursome gets together in Hawaii over the holidays each year, Titcomb, Orme and Ramos. Obama Tees off on Oracle Founder's Private Course - Newsmax 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. There are, however, chapters in Obamas high school narrative that are not subject to dispute. Obama is playing golf with three of his friends, Mike Ramos, Bobby Titcomb and Greg Orme. "It is a shame we have to worry so much about [grade point], but you know what the college entrance competition is these days," she wrote. 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. McLachlin said he survived a severe stroke shortly before Obama was elected president in 2008. He describes making friends easily, becoming fluent in Indonesian in just six months and melding quite easily into the very foreign fabric of Jakarta. Hes exhibited class and dignity all the way through it. In 2006, Mr. Obama used the family Christmas holiday there to decide whether to run for president. "Suddenly we asked, `Where's Barry?' They were like brothers, says Allman. The real Ray, Keith Kakugawa, is half black and half Japanese. 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. Some of the Betawi children threw rocks at the open Catholic classrooms, remembered Cecilia Sugini Hananto, who taught Obama in 2nd grade. Then his young mother, now divorced, met and married an Indonesian student studying at the University of Hawaii. Allman said that she thought highly of Obama, who was 'very intelligent and witty'. 'He and I really clicked,' she told TIME. "Junkie. 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.