The not-so-simple story of Barack Obama's youth (Photo by Joaquin Siopack-Pool/Getty Images) Former playmates remember Obama as "Barry Soetoro," or simply "Barry," a chubby little boy very different from the gangly Obama people know today. Obama was also known on campus for his basketball skills, and was sometimes called 'Barry O'bomber' for his jump shot. "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. Far less is known about Obama's buddies, of course, than about the president himself. Barry Obama and his best friend's 'foxy' prom date - The Telegraph We get together for golf, he said. "You need to find Greg Orme," instructed Obama's old basketball coach, Chris McLachin. 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. Aging photos show Obama and Orme decked out in 1970s fashion with their dates before attending a high school prom. In an essay about what he wanted to be when he grew up, Obama "wrote he wanted to be president," Sinaga recalled. 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. '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.'. But it was on the court in the off-season that Obama seemed to be even happier. We were all cracking up and everyone was smiling," she told the magazine. Some of these discrepancies are typical of childhood memories -- fuzzy in specifics, warped by age, shaped by writerly license. The pretty blonde on the right was the future president's prom date. 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. Among his supporters, his likability and credibility have only been boosted by his stories of being an outsider trying to fight his way in. Asked Saturday about Kakugawa's recollections, the Obama campaign declined to make the senator available. 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 . Mike Ramos, Bobby Titcomb, and Greg Orme-friends from Obama's high school daze in Hawaii-joined the president for a round on the links at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland on Saturday morning. 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. As it made its way over the mountain pass, he took in views of the lush, green and misty Koolau mountains. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. It was also how he wanted to be remembered. It was pretty typical from there out as far as what happens at prom: the dinner and the dancing and the photos.. And on Tuesday, in what's become a yearly tradition, the men and their families gathered for a luau hosted by Titcomb. On Sunday evening, Titcomb hosted a barbecue at his beachfront home for the entire contingent from . Those are qualities a president should have. After high school graduation Obama went to Columbia University and then Harvard Law School, where he met his future wife, Michelle. Visits With School Pals Are a Touchstone on President's Trips to Hawaii He said Obama may have come across as easy going, but he was no pushover. "He had a pretty good shot and really handled the ball well.. One of the neatest things is that he has promoted family, he said. 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. President Obama's Prom Date | Inside Edition (D-Hawaii), a close friend of Obama . "I imagine other black children, then and now, undergoing similar moments of revelation," Obama wrote of the magazine photos in "Dreams." "But it wasn't a race thing," he said. He came across an article that he later would describe as feeling like an "ambush attack." His character, the way he conducts himself, thats always been his footprint. Obama Hits Russia, the Gym and the Beach Thursday, Dec. 29 We have so many tones of brown here. Hes off the grid, said Hale, who is now the schools head basketball coach. Allman said the two couples sipped Champagne before going to the dance, and then an after-party. 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. Obama also made golf outings,. So just get the f--- outta my face." The Latest: Obamas, friends tour Hawaii Islamic arts center The Los Angeles Times weighed in the other day. 2023 TIME USA, LLC. No such photos, no such article. You have reached your limit of 4 free articles. The Latest: Obamas, friends tour Hawaii Islamic arts center "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? Mr. Titcomb was golfing with the president within hours of the Obamas Dec. 21 arrival on Oahu. If young Obama had struggled to find a place at Punahou, it was well hidden on this day as well. Obama is. Barry spent his days at the Punahou School in Hawaii studying, shooting hoops and goofing off with his friends. The President of the United States is no different. Many of the men were black. McLachlin said he survived a severe stroke shortly before Obama was elected president in 2008. Obama played basketball at Punahou with Orme, who the alumni magazine says is now a building contractor. 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. And while they did enjoy marijuana, Mr. Ramos acknowledged, we played a lot more basketball than we smoked pot.. When a friend gave him shrimp paste instead of chocolate, he yelled, "Curang, curang!" Yearbook note Obama left for classmate Tom Topolinski when they graduated in 1979 from the Punahou school. Who are President Obama's golf buddies? - The Desert Sun The U.S. military was expanding on the island of Oahu, home to the new capital of Honolulu. Bailey, who coached Obama during his junior year and now runs an ambulance service, said young Barry was a "gym rat. When youre on a school team, theres more discipline involved, he said. 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. 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. Old friend disputes memoir Every senior graduating from Punahou gets to design a quarter-page in the yearbook. The Obamas did skip Hawaii in 2007 and instead the friends joined Mr. Obama in wintry Iowa for the January 2008 presidential caucuses. We had great vibes between us, she told TIME. Standing up for your buddies. Allman said that she thought highly of Obama, who was 'very intelligent and witty'. After years during which the friends grew apart, Mr. Obama reconnected with Mike Ramos, Bobby Titcomb and Greg Orme a decade ago. Obama wrote in the lengthy yearbook note. "I went to those parties up at Schofield but never saw him at any of them." The number at Dunhams apartment in a nondescript Honolulu high rise has not changed in more than a quarter-century. 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. Hawaii had become a state only two years before Obama's birth, and there were plenty of native Hawaiians still deeply unhappy about it. 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. "I brood," Mr. Obama's friend Mr. Ramos said a few years ago. "Stanley loved that little boy," said Abercrombie, now a Democratic congressman from Hawaii. 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The White House says President Obama has been updated on progress made by Iraqi force against the Islamic State group in Ramadi. If this story is eight paragraphs, seven of them go to Greg. They got back in touch when she visited New York in 1982, before continuing a long-distance relationship that eventually fizzled out, according to his biographer David Maraniss. "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. Obama plays golf with Hawaii friends on Lanai owner's private course But such solitude has become less and less attainable for presidents in modern times. 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. 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 . His spelling wasnt too good either, he said, referring to the note Obama wrote in his high school year book. 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.