Massachusetts Gov. Michael S. Dukakis, the Democratic Party frontrunner in delegates and funding, may be on his way to the White House.

But the national press has all but forgotten that the three-term governor once faced tougher times. In 1978 he failed in his re-election bid against conservative Edward J. King. Seen as arrogant and too friendly to powerful business interests, Dukakis lost support to King on the right and to former Cambridge Mayor Barbara Ackerman on the left.

Like many another wounded politician, he found an academic haven in Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, where he served as a lecturer and director of intergovernmental studies beginning in mid-1980.

But like very few others, he left that haven two-and-a-half years later to win back his office, and eventually to become the top candidate for the nation's highest post.

How much credit can the K-School take for the comeback?

Some Massachusetts pundits describe Dukakis' term in Harvard Square as a fruitful apprenticeship to some of the nation's top political minds. They also say he owes much of his more recent success to support and advice from his former colleagues there.

But many professors, analysts, and campaign staffers back up the governor's claim to the dogged virtues of the marathon runner he once was. They argue that he learned at least as much from private reflection as he did from the sages of JFK Street.

In his stint at the Kennedy School, Dukakis helped to create a training program for state and local officials, taught courses on management in government, conducted research comparing chief executives on national, state, and local levels, and was a guest moderator of "The Advocates," a national public television series.

When Dukakis left the Kennedy School in 1982 to return to the State House he took with him eight staff and faculty members, including Associate Dean Ira Jackson, who became his Comissioner of Revenue and Nicholas Mitropoulos, who works on the governor's presidential campaign as a special assistant.

Kennedy School Dean Graham T. Allison '62 reportedly negotiated a limit with Dukakis on the number of faculty members he could take with him, Kennedy School officials say.

Further, they say Dukakis does not have strong ties to Kennedy School faculty, and that he does not seek their advice more often than other presidential candidates consult academics.

Many professors who knew the governor as a colleague from 1979 to 1982 say he used the time away from active politics primarily to reflect about his past.

"The Kennedy School gave him an opportunity to think about governance, to think through some of the success he had had and mistakes he had made," said Robert B. Reich, a lecturer on public policy.

"He didn't come here and sit at our feet and learn about public policy," said Herman B. Leonard, Baker professor of public managment. "He came here to reflect."

But several faculty members added that Dukakis' stay at the Kennedy School taught him to temper his arrogance and work better with others. This, they suggest, may be the key to the Dukakis transformation.