Harold's one legacy is his religion. Dutcher and his family converted from the Pentecostal faith to Harold's LDS faith. "The first time I attended an LDS meeting I remember immediately liking it," says Dutcher. It wasn't until he was 14 that Dutcher says he was truly converted through an experience he would later recount through the African-American missionary in "God's Army." The family was visiting Mormon historical sites in Illinois, and he had been praying for months to know if the church was true.

"I had read the Book of Mormon a couple of times, as well as the Bible, and I had been very active, but I never felt that experience of having personal revelation that it was true," he says. "I was at a crossroads, if I was going to keep going. I was sitting in the Carthage jail where Joseph Smith was martyred, and I bowed my head and asked if it was real. I began sobbing and I couldn't stop. Everybody was looking at me and wondering what was happening. It was powerful and wonderful. I was just filled with light. It didn't come from within; it came from without. I was just a participant. It is still something I draw on and go back to."

Just before the start of Dutcher's senior year at Hillcrest High, the family moved again, this time to Kansas; Dutcher remained behind. He stayed with one family and then another, but it proved uncomfortable for both. He was kicked out of his second home at Christmastime and was on his own.

Dutcher spent part of his senior year living out of his beat-up, bumpers-falling-off '71 Mercury Comet. He slept in his car and showered at school or at friends' houses. He had little money, which was nothing new. He had just two pairs of pants to wear, and he survived on macaroni and cheese and 29-cent hamburgers from Dee's.

"I had just enough money to keep gas in the car and eat a little," he recalls. "If there was a choice between seeing a movie or eating, I'd choose the movie. . . . I remember wishing that someday I could buy a can of soda and it would not be a big deal."

Despite his meager circumstances, Dutcher earned good grades, edited the school newspaper, acted in school plays, worked various jobs to support himself and served as student body vice president. He was offered several scholarships, and accepted one to BYU.

"He was not a wild guy, but he marched to his own drummer," recalls Shellie Jorgensen, a Dutcher confidant and former classmate. "He dressed differently than everyone else. Preppy was the fashion, and he wore a black leather jacket, jeans and the same shoes the whole year. He was short and scrawny. Anyone who didn't know him would think he was a nerd, but he wasn't. Everyone who knew him liked him. He was always very kind and very independent, and he was a hard worker. He didn't ask for anything from anybody."

Says Gwen, "He's so free of baggage for someone who went through what he went through. It astounds me. He's got confidence. He had to be independent at an early age. At 14, if he wanted clothes he bought them, and if he wanted meals he cooked them. I admire him for how he was able to come out of it without resentment and with a positive outlook on what he can achieve."