They both played Little League growing up in Manhattan Beach. Their parents knew each other. They went to Center Middle School.
But after high school, the lives of Scott Dennis and Tom Kelly split for over 30 years until recently, when they reunited in the small East African country of Djibouti.
Their reunion on the other side of the world isn’t quite as random as it seems. Their mothers probably played a larger role than is at first apparent.
After middle school, Dennis went to Mira Costa High School and then El Camino College. He joined the Navy and was looking for a final tour when he agreed to do counter-terrorism intelligence work at the U.S.’s only military base on the continent of Africa, Camp Lemonnier in Djibouti.
Kelly went to Aviation High School and then Georgetown University. In 1985, he joined the foreign service. He was working in the federal Bureau of Political-Military affairs when he was nominated by President Barack Obama to be the U.S. ambassador to Djibouti in 2014.
It was while Dennis was living at the base only two miles from the embassy that Dennis said he read about Kelly’s appointment in a newspaper and emailed him.
“I don’t know if you remember me,” Dennis said he wrote. “He wrote back, ‘I remember you. Your dad was the Little League coach.’”
Dennis learned that Kelly missed Mexican food and invited him to the base for Taco Tuesday. Kelly also invited Dennis to the embassy.
“We caught up on the past 30 years,” said Dennis.
“It was nice to see somebody from the area. He was there by himself. For him, it was nice to have someone from Manhattan Beach that he could talk to. We were chatting about the old days when Manhattan Beach was still a little bedroom community.”
Dennis’s mother Jan, a former Manhattan Beach mayor, sent Kelly copies of the Little League newsletter, which she edited in the 1970s when they played.
Dennis finished his 11-month final tour and came back to Southern California in October.
Kelly will remain at the embassy until the summer of 2017, when his assignment may change with the new president.
The U.S. took over the base with Djibouti’s agreement in the wake of September 11 with the hope that it could use the country’s location across the Red Sea from the Arabian Peninsula to fight terrorism. While he was there, Dennis performed intelligence work to stop Somali pirates to the south and the East African terrorist group Al-Shabaab.
Kelly sees diplomacy with countries such as Djibouti, which he called a “champion of moderate Islam,” as necessary to fight terrorism.
“Terrorists threaten moderate Muslims as much as us,” said Kelly. “There are 1.5 billion Muslims in the world. The only answer to the terrorism problem is to find allies who are going to work with us to try to counter violent extremism.”
Kelly visited his home town recently and was on his way back to Djibouti when his mother Virginia passed away. He returned for the funeral, held at American Martyrs.
Both men said their mothers, who served on a city commission together at one time, helped to inspired their interest in the larger world. Dennis’s mother has played an important role in trying to preserve the history of Manhattan Beach, from writing books chronicling the city’s development to encouraging the city council to pass a historic preservation law. His father traveled for work and would share his adventures with his family.
“I grew up with the travel bug,” said Dennis. “When you see other people, you see history.”
Speaking the day after his mother’s funeral, Kelly recalled how his mother ran a summer camp for kids from Watts through American Martyrs. During a downturn in the local aerospace industry, he said, she set up an employment exchange.
“We had a lot of people at the church last night because she touched so many lives in this community,” said Kelly. “She inspired a lot of us to pursue public service. She encouraged me to be interested in the broader world and to pursue my passion.” ER
