Father of U.S. President Barack Obama who worked as a Kenyan senior governmental Economist. He is the central figure of the memoir Dreams from My Father, written by President Obama.
Growing up in Kenya, he was chosen for a special program that sent him to the University of Hawaii. He then attended graduate school at Harvard, earned an Master's of Arts in Economics, and returned to Kenya in 1964.
He was blacklisted in Kenya after conflicts with Kenyan President Jomo Kenyatta. He caused three serious car accidents in his life, the last which proved to be fatal.
He and his first wife Kezia Obama had two children together. He and his second wife Stanley Ann Dunham met at the University of Hawaii where they had Barack Jr. together. He would have two more children with a third wife named Ruth, and another child with Jael Otieno.
He received a scholarship in economics that offered education in the West to outstanding Kenyan students. The scholarship received financial backing from Sidney Poitier, Jackie Robinson and Harry Belafonte, among others.
