Michael Stanley Dukakis (Greek: Μάικλ Στάνλεϋ Δουκάκης) (born November 3, 1933) served as Governor of Massachusetts from 1975–1979 and from 1983–1991, and was the Democratic presidential nominee in 1988. He was born to Greek immigrants of partly Vlach origin in Brookline, Massachusetts, also the birthplace of John F. Kennedy, and was the longest serving governor in Massachusetts history. He was the second Greek American governor in U.S. history after Spiro Agnew.

Dukakis's father Panos (1896–1979) was a Greek from Adramytio, in Asia Minor, who settled in Lowell, Massachusetts in 1912, and graduated from Harvard Medical School twelve years later, subsequently working as an obstetrician. His mother Euterpe (née Boukis) (1903–2003) was a Greek immigrant from Larissa; she and her family emigrated to Haverhill, Massachusetts, in 1913. She was a graduate of Bates College.

Dukakis attended Brookline High School in his hometown. He graduated from Swarthmore College in 1955, served in the U.S. Army 1955–1957, stationed in Korea, and then received his law degree from Harvard Law School in 1960. Dukakis is also an Eagle Scout and recipient of the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award from the Boy Scouts of America.