"A university can't just be all about intellectual excellence. It has to combine it with other personality attributes. BYU does an exemplary job trying to emphasize the connection between those two." When Houston arrived at BYU in 1993, he wasn't sure how long he'd stay, but he figured it was a long-term commitment. "I had a job offer the year I arrived from a think-tank run by Harvard. It would have been a very prestigious job," he says. "Not a few of my colleagues were aghast that I turned it down."

He stayed, partly because he didn't want to uproot his family again, and partly because he felt he needed to give the university a chance.

Houston says he flourished at BYU.

"In agricultural terms, I was in a place (Vanderbilt) where I was a plant trying to grow in very inauspicious soil," he says. "Here, there has been nothing but the richest nutrients available. BYU really allowed me to grow and undertake a lot of projects I wouldn't have been able to do before."Of course, Stephen and Nancy Houston, who celebrated their 20th anniversary in June, have encountered plenty of adversity as well, too. The first year of the Houstons' move to Provo, doctors diagnosed Nancy with cancer.

"It was a tremendous shock," Stephen remembers.

Nancy eventually recovered, but five years later, doctors found another tumor and she began treatment again.

"The first bout was in some ways worse because it was without precedent," he says. "The second bout, you kind of know what to expect. You've been trained for ways to be prepared for this. You learn that we're not allotted any given time on earth. There's an acknowledgement that life has to be lived flexibly. I've found it best in adversity to soldier on. It's helped me find strength and beauty in my work. I got a lot of support," recalls Nancy Houston, who is now healthy and cancer-free. "People in the neighborhood brought food." Houston says it's been fascinating for him to be on the outside of the predominant religion, looking in.

"I've been an anthropologist among the members (of the LDS Church). I've belonged, but I've never really belonged. I've lived in this paradoxical condition for 10 years," he says. "I was never fully enmeshed in the local institution. I've never made the mistake of thinking that I'm in a place that's equivalent to any other place in the U.S. I've always understood that it has special qualities.