(Photo by Joaquin Siopack-Pool/Getty Images) Obamas presidential prospects have been fueled in large part by an arresting life story: The son of a Kenyan goatherder, he wrestled with his dual identities to become the first black editor of the Harvard Law Review and a member of the U.S. Senate. 14:27 GMT 23 May 2013 Cook, who was 25, and Obama, then 22, dated for 18 months, passing their time discussing books and cooking. If young Obama had struggled to find a place at Punahou, it was well hidden on this day as well. Most of his teachers and friends express sorrow that they did not know of Obamas racial anguish or inner demons. The three men Mike Ramos, Bobby Titcomb and Greg. I loved his game," he said. But such solitude has become less and less attainable for presidents in modern times. 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. "But it wasn't a race thing," he said. This is the Barry I remember.. Outside of their regular vacation activities, the First Couple (along with Vice President Biden and Dr. Jill Biden) released their holiday playlists. He can really relate to people. 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. For Orme, the Obama he saw on the court was a lot like the Obama who occupied the White House a team player who liked to win. Coaches have recalled how he never went anywhere without a ball. So did Maurer, who is now a pastor in Houston. He even scored a basket," he said. The photos appear in the new issue of TIME, which hits news stands Friday. Titcomb has worked as a commercial fisherman and an airline employee, according to the school's alumni magazine. Hes kind of in and out. He didnt have to see me, but he was a man of his word, he said. 'You are extremely sweet and foxy, I don't know why Greg would want to spend any time with me at all!' The term wasn't considered a slur at the time in Indonesia. Likewise for Mr. Obama, it seems. I hadnt seen him for 30 years.. 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. 'When you're president, everybody wants something from you and only these types of friends are able to simply want your well-being.
---------- Kirsten Scharnberg reported from Honolulu and Kim Barker from Jakarta, Indonesia; Tribune staff reporter Ray Gibson contributed to this report. Obama also made golf outings,. That thoughtful poet is not remembered by any of his basketball buddies, coaches or friends. Murdaugh is heckled as he leaves court, Two Russian tanks annihilated with bombs by Ukrainian armed forces, Ukraine soldiers shoot down enemy drones with drones of their own, Dozens stuck in car park as staff refuses to open gate for woman, Missing hiker buried under snow forces arm out to wave to helicopter, Insane moment river of rocks falls onto Malibu Canyon in CA, Fleet-footed cop chases an offender riding a scooter, Isabel Oakeshott clashes with Nick Robinson over Hancock texts. Then and now, Punahou and Hawaii liked to see themselves as more diverse and colorblind than the rest of the nation. Some of that crew has stayed in Hawaii, but others have moved off island. The race to track them down and coax them to open up likely will include reporters as well as opposition research experts for political rivals. It wasnt until 2008, when Obama was making his first run for president, that they saw each other again at a fundraiser. Barry spent his days at the Punahou School in Hawaii studying, shooting hoops and goofing off with his friends. Obama never became terribly close with the children of the new school--this time a predominantly Muslim one--where he was enrolled. 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. 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. Tucked away in someone elses shoe box of adolescent artifacts, there might be a picture of you in garish clothes and with an outdated do, your arm around a high school squeeze. 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. It took about five hours for the president and his playing partners Bobby Titcomb, Greg Orme, and Darrell . , updated 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. 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. "Barry liked to draw heroes." 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 don't know why Greg would want to spend anytime with me at all! We are no longer accepting comments on this article. A close friend of Obama's from their teenage years, Greg Orme, spent so much time with Dunham that he, too, called him "Gramps." 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. I dont know why people have slammed him like that, said Maurer. The tenacity and determination Obama showed to make his high school basketball team was an early indicator of the greatness to come. "We live in a world of bullies and the U.S. has been bullied around. "I went to those parties up at Schofield but never saw him at any of them." The White House said Obama's foursome included childhood friends Bobby Titcomb, Greg Orme and Michael Ramos. WASHINGTON President Obama has called Hawaii his refuge, and so it has been throughout his political life. ", Ive known Barry since the fifth grade, he said. Young Barack Obama in a 7th grade photo in 1974 at Punahou School, Honolulu, Hawaii. 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. So we'd get three kids together to fight him," recalled Yunaldi Askiar, 45, a former neighborhood friend. But he seemed to have coped pretty well.. 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. 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." Bailey, who coached Obama during his junior year and now runs an ambulance service, said young Barry was a "gym rat. Having their back. 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. Ramos is most often referred to in stories about his relations with the president as a businessman. Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy. "You need to find Greg Orme," instructed Obama's old basketball coach, Chris McLachin. But he wanted to make everybody happy." Increasingly, the reunions have become the focal point of Obama's family vacation in his second term as his teenage daughters spend less and less time at their father's side. Many of the men were black. Mr. Titcomb was golfing with the president within hours of the Obamas Dec. 21 arrival on Oahu. HONOLULU (AP) The Latest on President Barack Obama's annual two-week vacation in Hawaii (all times local): 4 p.m. Right: Obama wrote the above note in Allmans yearbook at the end of his senior year in 1979. I am in poor health..
', '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.'. But Kakugawa, a convicted drug felon, said Saturday that he had never been the "prototypical angry black guy" that Obama portrays. The perfect tummy control bodysuit, a popcorn gadget, more bestsellers starting at $8. The White House says Obama is playing golf with some of his longtime friends including Mike Ramos, Greg Orme and Bobby Titcomb. Bendix said he and Obama stayed in touch and he was at his 2008 inauguration. Greg Orme, a fellow varsity basketball player, was Obamas constant companion. "I don't imagine the decision to let him stay behind was an easy one for anyone," Soetoro-Ng said. In a May 21, 2008 Sports Illustrated interview, Obama spoke of the importance of basketball in his life. 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. Barack Obama as a baby. Still, all of his teachers at the Catholic school recognized leadership qualities in him. We are just such a mixed-up bag of races. 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. Her date was Greg Orme, Obama's best friend. Corky Siemaszko is a senior reporter for NBC News Digital. Right around then, we really started getting into basketball., Obama was all business when it came to "the game. 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. 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. He would bring up worldly topics far beyond his years. 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. He knew the really small apartment that Mr. Obama lived in with his grandparents and what a talker Gramps was. It was also how he wanted to be remembered. While Obama rocketed to political prominence, his friend headed down the troubled road Obama had feared he was following. Orme recalled that years later, at Obama's wedding reception in Chicago, Obama brought the crowd to tears when he spoke of his recently deceased maternal grandfather and how he made a little boy with an absent father feel as though he was never alone.