The Rev. Jerry Falwell — beloved and despised as a spokesman for conservative American politics and religion for the last quarter-century — died yesterday after being found unconscious in his office at Liberty University.

Falwell, 73, had survived two serious health scares in early 2005. He was hospitalized for two weeks with what was described as a viral infection, and then was hospitalized again a few weeks later after going into respiratory arrest. Later that year, doctors found a 70 percent blockage in an artery, which they opened with stents.

But he’d been actively involved in the aggressive growth of his church and his university over the past year and was scheduled to attend graduation in Lynchburg this weekend.

Falwell was the founder and spiritual leader at both Thomas Road Baptist Church, one of the nation’s largest congregations, and Liberty University, a 30-year-old Christian institution that now boasts a law school and 9,600 students on campus.