12 Facts About Lolo Soetoro

Lolo Soetoro, known as Lolo Soetoro Mangunharjo or Mangundikardjo, was an Indonesian man who was the stepfather of Barack Obama, the 44th president of the United States.

Lolo Soetoro was born in Bandung, West Java, Dutch East Indies, the ninth of 10 children of Martodihardjo, an employee of a mining office from Yogyakarta.

Lolo Soetoro earned his bachelor's degree in geography from Gadjah Mada University, in Yogyakarta.

Lolo Soetoro arrived in Honolulu in September 1962 and graduated from the university with a M A in geography in June 1964.

Lolo Soetoro met the divorced Ann Dunham at the East-West Center while both were students at the University of Hawaii, and married on 15 March 1965.

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In 1970, with a new job in government relations at Union Oil Company, Lolo Soetoro moved his family two miles north to a rented house, with a car replacing their motorcycle.

Lolo Soetoro's gained an M A in anthropology in December 1974 and returned with her daughter to Jakarta in 1975 while Obama remained in Hawaii.

Dunham became increasingly interested in Indonesian culture while Lolo Soetoro became more interested in that of the West, and their relationship was in conflict over differing values.

Lolo Soetoro died, age 52, on 2 March 1987, of liver failure, and was buried in Tanah Kusir Cemetery, South Jakarta.

Lolo Soetoro usually was too busy working, first for the Indonesian army and later for a Western oil company.

Zulfan Adi, a former neighborhood playmate of Obama's who has been cited in news reports as saying Obama regularly attended Friday prayers with Lolo Soetoro, told the Tribune he was not certain about that when pressed about his recollections.

Lolo Soetoro only knew Obama for a few months, during 1970, when his family moved to the neighborhood.