Here’s a Mike Dukakis story.

It came back to me last week following the honoring of the former three-term governor and presidential candidate at Northeastern University where he taught for 29 years after leaving public office.

Dukakis, now 90, was 55 years old when he ran for the White House. He is the first Greek American to be nominated for president. He is also one of the few politicians to leave office without using it to later become rich.

So, it is July, 1988. We are covering the Democrat Party’s convention in Atlanta where Dukakis is about to be nominated for president.

It is a big deal.

Starting out as a long shot, Dukakis, through dogged determination and luck, rose to the top over several other better-known candidates to win the party nomination.

One of those Democrats running was Joe Biden. But in an early sign of what was to come, Biden was forced out of the race after it was reported that that he plagiarized a working-class speech given by Neil Kinnock, the leader of the British Labor Party.

It was later revealed that a tape of the Kinnock speech had been leaked by key Dukakis campaign staffers who Dukakis fired.

At any rate, I was part of the Boston Herald team of reporters in the convention hall waiting for the nominating speeches, one of which was to be given by Bill Clinton, then governor of Arkansas.

Clinton, looking around, no doubt thought, if Dukakis can run for president, why not me?

Dukakis, as is the custom, would not appear at the convention hall until the day after he was nominated to make his acceptance speech.

In the pre-cell phone era, a Secret Service type pulled me aside in the Herald press room and said, “Governor Dukakis would like you to come to his suite.”

Although we were not close, I had known and covered Dukakis since he began his career at the State House in 1963 as a liberal freshman state representative from Brookline. It was while I was a rookie State House reporter.

I also covered his failed campaigns for attorney general (1966) and lieutenant governor (1970) along with his four campaigns for governor, three of which he won.

While his staff at the State House would whine over some of the critical columns I wrote — like dubbing him “Mandatory Mike” for the leftist mandates he issued, he never complained.

Nor did he grouse when —  because of his Spartan political lifestyle — I wrote a tongue in cheek column accusing him of spreading “stiffitis” throughout the State House because he was such a “stiff.”

At any rate, a pair of Secret Service agents met me at Dukakis’ hotel and whisked me up to the top floor and then through a maze of corridors to Dukakis’ suite.

He was there with the late Massachusetts House speaker George Keverian of Everett. Because Keverian was such an avid poker player I thought for a moment that he was about to break out a deck of cards. Then I came to my senses since that could not be, not with Mike Dukakis.

“Sit in on this,” Dukakis said. He pointed to the huge television set.

The three of us sat on a sofa facing the screen, Dukakis on the left, as was fitting, Keverian in the middle and me on the right.

In a few moments Texas Gov. Ann Richards appeared and gave a rip roaring, no holds barred speech nominating Dukakis for president and attacking Republican Vice President George H.W. Bush, Dukakis’ opponent.

“Poor George,” she said, “he can’t help it if he was born with a silver foot in his mouth.”

The applause was deafening. Everyone was happy and clapping and cheering for Mike Dukakis.

The three of us looked at one another. It was a moment to remember.

There was a pause, and it sank in. He had just been nominated for president.

Keverian said, “Look at this, the three of us.  Here we are, a Greek American, an Armenian American and an Albanian American. And one of us is running for president of the United States. Is this a great country, or what?”

Peter Lucas is a veteran political reporter. Email him at: peter.lucas@bostonherald.com

Peter Lucas listens as Gov. Michael Dukakis sits for an interview. (Photo courtesy Peter Lucas)