Mitt and Ann moved east in 1971 so he could attend graduate school at Harvard. They settled in Belmont and began expanding their family. In 1981, Ann delivered their fifth and final son. By then, they had moved from a modest three-bedroom place to a handsome four-bedroom, natural-shingle house near the private Belmont Hill School, which all five boys would attend.

While moving ahead briskly in the business world, Mitt took on the added responsibility of serving as a lay bishop of Belmont's LDS congregation. "Mitt," says Kem Gardner, a fellow church official from this period, "just had the capacity to keep all the balls up in the air."

The church was at the center of the family's spiritual and social lives. Before high school every day, the boys went to a neighbor's house for "seminary," where they would discuss scripture for 45 minutes. Sunday mornings were spent in church, and Sunday afternoons were devoted to volunteer work. Tuesday evening "mutual" brought together church families for basketball games and cookouts.

At night, the family had a tradition of holding a freewheeling discussion while sitting together in a room, with the lights turned off. The practice was an outgrowth of the boys' habit of wandering into their parents' room in the middle of the night, climbing onto the couch at the foot of their bed, and wanting to talk.

Over time, the discussion drifted to the evening hours before bed, with the darkened room somehow allowing the boys to feel more free to open up. "It was just a time to totally be yourself," Tagg says.

In time, the five boys would take on their own profiles within the family.

As Tagg would later describe his brothers, Matt was "the jokester, always pushing people's buttons" and Josh was "the typical middle child, wanting lots of attention and getting a lot of it."

Ben remained "very reserved and quiet, a little aloof from the situation" while Craig relished his role as "the ultimate baby, everyone's favorite brother." Tagg says he himself was the typical oldest brother, "Type A and too tightly wound."

As Mitt had before him, Tagg spent his early years idolizing his father. But then he spent much of his adolescence wanting nothing to do with his dad. It began around age 11, when his father in his eyes went from "superman to supernerd."

"Overnight," Tagg says, "everything about him bugged me." The way he wore his jeans so short. The way he insisted all the boys wake up early on Saturdays for chores. Even the way he said good morning. "It bothered me that he would be so nice about it."

Family members say Mitt had a tough time dealing with this rejection from his oldest son. After all, Mitt's relationship with his own father had never suffered such strain.

Tagg had no problem with his mother, "but my dad and I would just go at it."