In Memory

John Obazawa

John Obazawa

For the Friends and Family of John "Obie" Obazawa...
There will be an informal "Happy Hour Memorial" for him:
Bring photos and stories to share

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 2018
4-7 pm
Koko Beach
2858 Carlsbad Blvd
Carlsbad, CA
(San Diego County Friends and Family)

SATRUDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2018
5-7:30
Hart Park House
222 W Sierra Madre Blvd
Sierra Madre, CA 91024
(Sierra Madre Friends and Family)



 
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09/20/18 11:35 AM #1    

Thomas Lanphier

Good Grief Obie;

Was so looking forward to seeing you at the last get together.  Heard you were going to be there. It has been years since we have shared time and yet, since I heard you received your 'Exit' papers, I have thought of you and missed you every day. 

Way too many stories to share here John but I know for a fact, since meeting you in 7th grade, I never spent more time in Junior High and High School with any other friend.  Seems like we did pretty much everything together.

Will never forget you Obie.

Tom Lanphier


10/14/18 12:43 PM #2    

Gregory Prout

I share Tom's sentiments though he knew Obie a lot better than I. Obie was the lynchpin of the Grove St. gang that hung out at Grandma Reyes' garage, our clubhouse in 11th and 12th grade. John was always in the middle of our shenanigans, a team player, forever on the lookout for adventure and an inspiration for fun. He was smart, good-looking, very athletic, loved to laugh, and had a winning grin. People who knew him loved him. I too miss him. He was a good friend. RIP, dear friend.


10/15/18 10:00 AM #3    

Donald Lubbock

John Obie Obazawa and I didn't see much of each other at PHS. He was at the golf course and I was at the beach. But in 1969 when I moved to Maui he was already there and we spent many hours surfing and getting a long great friendship established. He moved to Santa Barbara after a few years and I stayed for over 10 but he always came back to surf and hang with mysef and the crew. When I moved back to SoCal and Mike Rejda and I got a place in Cardiff,  Obie and Tom Herbaugh always stayed and surfed with us and we had many adventures. Then he bought his house in Oceanside and I would drive south to stay with him and mostly golf with him and Greg Lubbock. Those were great times just like the days of the past, spending time doing what we liked best. I saw Obie the last time just a few months before his passing and him, Greg, and myself talked about life and how things had changed. Little did I know it would be the last time I would see him. So long my friend see you on the other side, you are missed.


10/16/18 09:20 AM #4    

John Potter

I first met John when I was kicked upstairs into Mr. Mitchell's 6th-grade class in 1961, and we knew each other through PHS.  We spoke last at the 30th reunion.  He was a fine young man then, and I know he has a fine adult.  One of the things I discovered last year during my time in CA for the reunion was the restored Japanese garden at Sierra Madre School.  Those of us who went there were puzzled by the mysterious faux-wood, concrete footbridge sitting in dirt and surrounded by a railing next to the steps up to the pergola where we ate lunches. That was the forbidden zone to us.  I learned that the Peace Garden, donated by Japanese-American families when the present school opened in 1931, had been vandalized by drunken "patriots" in late 1941
and the school buried the evidence and filled in the pond.  I cried with delight and with sadness at seeing the restored, now un-fenced garden.  I've since found photos of it when it was built, including one with the Japanese-American students posed in the early 30s.  At least one of them was likely an Obazawa parent, and the creepy thing is that these kids grew up and were sent to concentration camps as "enemy aliens".  We can't let the lesson of the Peace Garden be lost and it's beauty destroyed again because of intolerence and xenophobia.  Everyone who went to Sierra Madre School should visit the campus and be as inspired as I was.  John Potter


05/26/19 05:38 PM #5    

Mary Uyematsu (Kao)

I last saw Johnny several years ago at his uncle's memorial.  I just got news of his passing today from his cousin and was quite shocked.  My best memory of Johnny was from Sierra Madre Elementary, maybe 4th or 5th grade?  Chris Carlson called him a Jap—I'm not sure why because Chris had a big crush on me.  There was only three of us Japanese Americans in the whole grade.  anyways, Johnny took Chris on and they got into a fist fight.  I was secretly really glad that Johnny got in a fight with Chris for calling him a Jap—something that has been seared into my memory of growing up in Sierra Madre and never knowing when I was going to get called out for being a "Jap."  

He also beat me up the first time his parents brought him and his sister Susie over to our house, maybe in the first grade.  He was a badass that didn't take shit.  While we were never very close, kids all through grammar school paired us up as a couple.  

rest in peace Johnny Obazawa


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