While he is not a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which owns and operates BYU, Houston is a spiritual man who regards himself as a Quaker. The East Coast native enjoys telling his classes about the spiritual nature of his research, which was well-received at BYU. He's not sure how that will go over with students at Brown.

"I'm worried about that," he says. "I will have to prepare for a more combative atmosphere. It will be much more confrontational at Brown."

"I've been telling people, without changing our politics at all, we're going to be going from being on the liberal side to being on the conservative side," says Nancy Houston.

Certainly, Houston will be missed by his colleagues at BYU, who say his contributions to his field, and to the school, have been immense.

"He is a world-renowned scholar, a very prolific writer in his field and an excellent teacher," says Joel Janetski, chairman of BYU's department of archaeology. "I am not a Mesoamericanist, but his work on hieroglyphs and his excavations at Piedras Negras, and most recently at Kaminaljuyu, have contributed greatly to what we know about Mayan civilization. He had a profound impact on our department while he was here."

"I have no way of knowing for sure, but I seriously doubt anyone at BYU exceeds his scholarly output during the 10 years he has been here," says John Robertson, a BYU linguistics professor who has worked extensively with Houston. "A dean once told me that he was one of the 'crown jewels' of the university. He has brought prestige and credibility to the department of anthropology and to the university."

Houston, a field archaeologist, a cultural anthropologist, an art historian and an international expert on writing systems, helped publish the first study on the death of writing systems, including the Mayan language, last summer. Publications like National Geographic, Science magazine and the Washington Post have reported on his work.

Houston, who will carry on his research at Brown, says he did not arrive at the decision to leave BYU easily. After all, it was while living in Utah that his wife survived two bouts with breast cancer. Their two children, 18-year-old Anders, who recently graduated from Timpview High School, and 15-year-old Hannah, who recently finished her freshman year at the school, have practically grown up in Provo. Through it all, Houston says he and his family have made many friends and learned lessons that have enriched their lives.

"I think this society still has some of the characteristics of America of the 1950s and before. And I don't necessarily think that's a bad thing," Houston says. "There's a friendship among neighbors and a higher degree of civility than what we see in other parts of the country."