Boston Globe, MA
March 10 2009

George Keverian: Power, personality, wit

By Michael Goldman
March 10, 2009

AT LEAST once a month at the State House, someone would ask me if I
knew how former House speaker George Keverian was doing. These
inquiries were always sincere, yet laced with a certain sadness that a
power, personality, wit, and intelligence as large as George’s could
just fade away with nary a sound.

Sadly, this was a choice George made himself, for reasons he kept to
himself. Phone calls from old friends, colleagues, and staff often
went unanswered, invitations to breakfast or lunch ignored.

It wasn’t that George totally disappeared. On the smaller stage of
Everett life and politics, his shadow always loomed large. Up to his
sudden death last week, he remained Everett’s favorite son.

But it was in the halls of the State House where George Keverian made
his mark. He knew more about the boundaries of all 160 House Districts
than did any other member. His personality and wit made him the most
desired politician to host or address local political events. And he
remains the only one to engineer and implement a campaign that toppled
a powerful sitting House speaker.

George rarely crossed the State House’s thresholds after his loss for
state treasurer in the 1990 Democratic primary. When he did
occasionally emerge from his self-imposed Boston isolation, such as
his spectacular appearance at a gala event honoring former governor
Michael Dukakis a half decade ago, the brilliance and ferocity of his
wit was once again on display. As one former Dukakis staffer mused
last week, "Mike Dukakis was never more liked or likable than when
under the withering wit of Keverian. In the most devastatingly
humorous manner, every Michael tick or mannerism was fair game, and
every Dukakis idiosyncrasy seemed to become a winning asset."

Anyone lucky enough to have known him, of course, has their favorite
"George" story.

The year I worked for him during the speaker’s battle in 1984, he sent
me every story he could find about someone who had died while
running. "Nobody ever died sitting on the couch," he claimed, "and
it’s the exercise that’s killing these people. Seriously, show me a
single story where someone died just sitting on a couch, minding their
own business."

The truth was that George, known by many for his constant struggles
with his weight, was a champion runner in high school, a little known
fact of which he was quite proud.

And then there was George, the guy known to be tight with the penny,
but who loved poker and always carried more than a little cash with
him.

One day I asked him why he always seemed so well heeled. Without
missing a beat he responded, "I figure someday someone is going to try
and rob me. I figure if they get a lot of money, they’ll be so happy,
they’ll run away as fast as they can. They’ll be happy, and I’ll be
fine. Worth every cent, don’t you think?"

That was George – always thinking.

Finally, there was the call I got from George while we were both in
Atlanta during the 1988 Democratic convention. George, who had a fear
of flying, was at a facility that specialized in helping folks
overcome their phobia by putting them in the pilot seat of a simulated
flight taking off from then National Airport in Washington. The idea
was to show how safe and simple flying really was.

Keverian called my hotel room and left the following message:
"Michael, Charlie (Charlie Flaherty, then the House majority leader)
is going to be ‘sooo’ happy. I’m dead." Click.

It turned out that during the simulated takeoff, with George at the
controls, the plane had smashed into the Washington Monument, killing
all on board, the first, and as far as I know, the only time this had
ever occurred.

Only George.

Those who mourn George today share the bond of understanding that they
knew a gentle, sensitive man touched by the Gods with greatness and
yet bedeviled by never fully understanding what his intelligence, his
gracefulness under pressure, his humor and his friendship meant to
others.

Michael Goldman, senior consultant with the Government Insight Group
in Boston, served as political consultant during Keverian’s successful
battle for House speaker in 1984.

_opinion/oped/articles/2009/03/10/george_keverian_ power_personality_wit/