Retiring at 90, Michael Dukakis is hailed as teacher, leader and benevolent ‘nag’

Northeastern University hosted a high-profile retirement party Thursday, as former Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis stepped down after 29 years of teaching politics and policy at the school.

A cavalcade of elected officials, political fixers and policy wonks turned up to honor the man who was once the Democratic nominee for president — including three who followed him into the governor’s office: William Weld, Deval Patrick and Maura Healey. The event concluded with the reading of a note from former President Bill Clinton, who wrote of Dukakis, “our nation is better off because of your example.”

Costas Panagopoulos, who hosted the event as chair of Northeastern’s department of political science, noted the turnout was no surprise: “No one said 'No,' because everybody loves Michael Dukakis."

The event was part tribute and part roast, with the ex-governor sent up as an insistent, frugal “A-student” — and perhaps the most honorable and consequential politician in the state’s modern history.

During his own eight-year term as governor, Patrick said, Dukakis reached out freely about policy shortfalls and uncollected litter. “I would get cell phone calls: ‘I'm driving on Route 24, and you’ve gotta get some people out here to pick up the trash.’”

If Dukakis can be “kind of a nag,” Patrick said, he also was a peerless mentor, walking him through the rudiments of a grassroots campaign, hosting the Patricks for waffles after winning the 2006 gubernatorial election and teaching Patrick to think not in terms of election cycles, but of generations.

Healey said her takeaway from Dukakis’s legacy was “building incredible teams: bright, engaged, curious team players who are all about advancing the public good — not ego, not self-aggrandizement.”

And while Dukakis cuts a very different figure from Weld, the large and demonstrative Republican WASP who succeeded him as governor, the two share a real affection — one that began during their time together at the law firm Hale & Dorr.

“I've come to think … that Michael and I might have been, in one sense, ideologically separated at birth,” Weld said. “If I had to summarize in one word the legacy of Mike Dukakis in politics, the one word is ‘honesty’ ... being absolutely straight.”

Weld and others noted that Dukakis, the son of Greek immigrants, stepped into a State House that had been characterized by Irish-Italian parochialism, revenue skimming and political patronage.

By contrast, upon taking office, Dukakis warned his staff that he would fire any staffers found to be involved even in legitimate political fundraising, according to Fred Salvucci, secretary of transportation during two of Dukakis’ three terms as governor.

“He said, ‘You've been hired to give the people of Massachusetts the best government they've ever had — that's your only mission,’” Salvucci recalled. “I will forever be grateful for the privilege of serving [with him].”

In retrospect, Dukakis’s governorship — from 1975 to 1979 and 1983 to 1991 — seemed to mark a hinge point in the political history of Massachusetts, according to Robert DeLeo, the state’s speaker of the house from 2009 to 2020 and a fellow Northeastern colleague after that.

If Massachusetts is “ahead of the game” politically, DeLeo said, it’s partly in tribute to Dukakis, who built up a technology corridor along Route 128, protected offshore waters from oil exploration and made major investments in the MBTA, a lifelong passion.

Throughout hours of tributes, Dukakis, who turned 90 in November, sat flanked by his children, responding, on occasion, to the panelists. After being helped onstage at the end of the event, he said, “I resisted this as hard as I could, but it’s really been wonderful.”

Dukakis noted how sad he was that his beloved wife Kitty couldn’t be present. “But she's 87,” he added, “She's starting to show signs of aging — that's the way it is.”

He concluded with thanks to Northeastern where, over almost three decades, he’s sought to educate future public servants on his high-information, high-integrity blueprint. “It's been a joy to be here, to be part of it, to teach those students and to watch them just grow remarkably,” Dukakis said.

Dukakis discussed his own journey to that stage, surrounded by cameras and admirers. His father, he noted, came to the United States from a Greek island at age 16. His mother came from Greece to Haverhill at age nine. She went on to be named Phi Beta Kappa at Bates College in Maine.

Reflecting on that success, he said, “How many Greek kids do you think made that journey?”