It was illegal to actually touch someone speaking on the dais in London's Hyde Park in the 1930s. For that, you could be arrested.

But it was perfectly acceptable to taunt and heckle and humiliate a young man trying to educate an unruly crowd about the principles of something called The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It was perfectly legal to swing a cane within a breath of that person's face.

It was an odd training ground for a boy from Salt Lake City who would grow up to lead the 11 million-member LDS Church. Today, Gordon B. Hinckley, who has been named the most influential person in Utah in a Deseret News study, might say the training was perfectly fitting.

"Several other men were named by 1 percent of Americans: Former President Jimmy Carter, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, former President George Bush, civil rights leader Jesse Jackson, golfer Tiger Woods, Mormon leader Gordon Hinckley, the Dalai Lama and former NBA star and current NBA front office executive Michael Jordan." — The Gallup Organization, poll of Most Admired People in the Nation, Dec. 15-17, 2000.

In 1692, the first Hinckley family representative left England for America. Samuel Hinckley landed safely on the East Coast and was eventually elected governor of his Virginia colony to become one of the most influential men in the New World.

Now 400 years later, his descendant shares that designation.

President Hinckley, who will be 91 on June 23, is the most influential man in one of the most influential groups of residents in the Beehive State. But it is a position he seems to treat with respect and care, according to research conducted over several months by the Deseret News. Top state officials agree.

"The LDS Church is a large constituent and deserves the same attention as any other constituent of its size, complexity and importance," said Gov. Mike Leavitt, himself an active member of the LDS Church.

When he had been governor only a few days, Leavitt requested a meeting with the leadership of the church. "And basically, what our conversation was, and it was Gordon B. Hinckley who said it: 'We have a relationship we'd like to propose. You run the state and we'll run the church.' Those were his words."

President Hinckley declined to be interviewed for this story. While appreciative of the recognition expressed, he said it would be inappropriate to involve the office of the president of the LDS Church in a popularity contest. President Hinckley has spoken out on a number of occasions against the adulation of person.