"Strautmanis said he first became friends with Sidley associate Michelle Robinson, who was then engaged to Sidley associate Obama. Strautmanis assumed that Obama “was a geek” because Obama had been head of the Harvard Law Review." "Then, at the Sidley picnic, Obama turned out to be “a guy with a left-handed jump shot who kept getting that ... jump shot off against me,” Strautmanis recalled."
BUT see here:
Obama and Strautmanis met on the basketball court at Robinson's [Michelle] uncle's house, "and we've all been friends ever since."
Mike Strautmanis Counselor for strategic engagement to White House senior adviser Valerie Jarrett (since January 2011)
I cannot find who Michelle's uncle could be. As far as I have been able to determine, both her father and mother were only children???
The above source also has good info for comparison.
Chicagoan Strautmanis headed to WH, too --- Dec 2008
Whitehouse.gov omits Blagojevich link from Michael Strautmanis biography---Jan 2009
The article below has many Obama Chicago connections and this anecdote:
Sixty years ago, when a future U.S. congressman and federal judge named Abner Mikva tried to volunteer at his South Side ward office, the boss there asked him, “Who sent you?” After the young Mikva admitted no one had, he was rebuffed: “We don’t want nobody nobody sent.” ....Barack Obama himself sometimes proclaimed on the campaign trail, “Nobody sent me,” announcing both his ties to his adopted city and his arrival as a force for change....
When I spoke to Mikva, long a friend and mentor to the president, I asked about the appropriation of his ward-boss anecdote. “Barack took it on as if it happened to him,” Mikva said, his voice betraying just a hint of irritation. “I had to remind him where he heard the story. I had to tell him that it was my story, and it really happened.”
http://familypedia.wikia.com/wiki/Fraser_C._Robinson_III_%281935-1991%29
Birth: August 1, 1935 Chicago, Cook County, Illinois, United States
Death: March 6, 1991 Chicago, Cook County, Illinois, United States
Father: Fraser Robinson, Jr. (1912-1996)
Mother: LaVaughn D Johnson (1915-2002)
Skills: Water plant pump operator
Spouse: Marian L. Shields (1937)
Wedding: October 27, 1960 Cook County, Illinois, United States
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/21/us/politics/21family.html?pagewanted=all
Still, the family’s progress has a two steps forward, one step back quality. Jim Robinson was born into slavery, but his son, Fraser, ran a lunch truck in Georgetown. In turn, his son, Fraser Jr., struck out for Chicago in search of something better. But he was unable to find work, and left his wife and children for 14 years, according to his son Nomenee Robinson. As a result, Mrs. Obama’s father was on welfare as a boy and started working on a milk truck at 11.
After serving in the Army in World War II and finally securing a job as a postal clerk, Fraser Robinson Jr. rejoined his family. He was so thrifty that he would bring home chemicals to do the family dry cleaning in the bathtub. But his son — Mrs. Obama’s father, Fraser Robinson III — became overwhelmed with debt and dropped out of college after a year. He worked in a city boiler room for the rest of his life, helping to send his four younger siblings to college, then his two children, Mrs. Obama and her brother, to Princeton.
(no link)
OBITUARIES
Sun News, The (Myrtle Beach, SC) - Tuesday, November 12, 1996
EXCERPT
GEORGETOWN — Fraser Robinson , 84, died Saturday, Nov. 9, 1996, at Georgetown Memorial Hospital.
Born Aug. 24, 1912, in Georgetown, he was a son of the late Fraser and Rosa Ella Cohen Robinson .
He was a retired postal clerk and a member of Bethel AME Church.
Survivors include his wife, LaVaughn Robinson of Chicago; three sons, Nomenee Robinson and Andrew Robinson , both of Chicago; and Carleton Robinson of South Lake, Texas; a daughter, Francesca Gray of Bellwood, Ill.; two sisters, Zenobia Tharpe of Georgetown and Verdelle Funnye of Chicago.
The family will receive friends at 6 tonight at Wilds’ Funeral Home.
The funeral will be at 3 p.m. Wednesday at Bethel AME Church. Burial will be in Bethel Cemetery.
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/nomenee-robinson/17/176/a
Nomenee Robinson
Vice President of Marketing at Winstar Courier Incorporated
Dallas/Fort Worth Area
Transportation/Trucking/Railroad
Current
Vice President of Marketing at Winstar Courier Incorporated
Regional Recruiter at Peace Corps
Past
Regional Recruiter at U.S. Peace Corps
Adjunct Professor at Lagos Business School
Executive Vice President at Silverbird Communication
Education
Harvard Business School
Illinois Institute of Technology
Illinois Institute of Technology
Thus was born the idea of the Peace Corps, and when Kennedy took office the next year, he swiftly made it a reality. He called for volunteers to spend two years improving the health, education and economic prospects of some of the poorest people on earth — and, not coincidentally in those Cold War years, to burnish America’s global reputation.
Thousands of Americans stepped forward. One was Nomenee Robinson, then a young architect and city planner working in Chicago’s Water Department.
He had an itch for adventure and a desire to help others. And by the autumn of 1961, he was in India’s Punjab state, assisting with building projects in a country struggling to gain its footing after centuries of colonial rule.
Life there was hard. Robinson had to use bricks made of sand and straw and just a dab of cement. He was on constant guard not to offend his hosts with an easygoing joke. And once, while he was building trekking huts in the Himalayas, his pack horses were killed by wild animals.
Yet through every difficulty, his enthusiasm never flagged.
“There was a challenge in understanding how to work with another culture,” he said. “That excited me.”
Robinson, who is Michelle Obama’s uncle, is one of five Chicago-area residents who shared their memories of the early days of the Peace Corps with the Tribune. Volunteering in the glow of Camelot, their optimism was tested by rough conditions and occasional doubts about whether they were really making a difference.
There was no doubt, though, about the enormous difference the Peace Corps made in their own lives. It forged a global consciousness and a service-minded attitude that stayed with them for decades.
Robinson, now 73, a retired businessman turned Peace Corps recruiter, was reminded of that just the other day. Walking through downtown, he spotted a turbaned Sikh and greeted the man in Punjabi.
“The guy flipped,” he recalled. “He said, ‘Wow, you talk just like a villager!’ I don’t have enough of the language left, but when I see a Sikh, I can say enough to warm his heart. I can take that to the grave with me.”
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/michelle-obamas-uncle-worked-in-punjab-in-60s/705298/
While the Golden Temple in Amritsar is no longer on their itinerary, US President Barack Obama’s wife, Michelle Obama, can trace her links to Punjab back to 1961 when her uncle, Nomenee Robinson, worked in the state as a Peace Corps volunteer.
Robinson, an architect, was sent to Punjab to assist in building projects. Based at the Punjab Engineering College, he was associated with the institute’s rural housing wing. He worked under then Punjab Financial Commissioner for Development Anthony Fletcher (ICS officer).
During his field work, Robinson stayed in Nasirpur village near
Patiala, where he helped the residents in fabricating structures using a Cinva-Ram machine to make bricks from soil, sand, straw and a fraction of cement. In the course of his two-year stay in Punjab, Robinson travelled extensively with Indian engineers throughout the state, visiting Ludhiana, Sangrur, Jalandhar and Amritsar.
Asked about his Punjab stay, Robinson, now 73 and a Peace Corps recruiter, said in an e-mail to The Indian Express: “It crosses my mind every year since I left. I would love to be involved in some way with strategic and economic planning for regions of India.”
Robinson, who went on to do his MBA from Harvard Business School after returning from India, said he enjoyed Punjabi food and hospitality. His best friends were a mix of Sikhs and Hindus, he said, recalling some names like Muktiah Singh, Jugdesh, Tunji, Vir, Raju and Sohan Lal.
Besides Punjab, Robinson also went to Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh. For three months, he was sent on an assignment to begin construction of trekking huts above Manali. “It was a most exciting, and sometimes thrilling, exposure to India and the cultures in the north,” said Robinson.
... contd.
Recalling some of his unforgettable memories, Robinson said: “On one occasion, Mr Fletcher took me to New Delhi when he assisted in Five Year Plan sessions. He arranged for me to chat with Jawaharlal Nehru in his private office. I shall never forget that experience, one that few Americans have ever had. I, a small boy from the inner city of Chicago, drinking tea, sitting and talking with one of the greatest men in our lifetime.”