The Rev. Jerry Falwell was remembered locally as a sometimes too strident visionary, who changed the face of American politics.

He never had political traction in Western Pennsylvania, where the evangelicals tend to be moderate and the Democrats tend to be anti-abortion. He paid three brief visits here, the last in 1987.

The Rev. John White, president emeritus of Geneva College in Beaver Falls, was president of the National Association of Evangelicals when Mr. Falwell reached the apex of his influence. Mr. Falwell didn't represent mainstream evangelicalism, he said.

"From our standpoint in the NAE, it was a mutual understanding that he was not part of our circle and he did not consider us to be conservative enough or political enough on most issues," Dr. White said.

"However, we certainly did consider him a brother in Christ."

Mr. Falwell was in some ways a paradox, he said.

"I think most of us would have considered him to be the expression of patent anti-intellectualism of what we would call the fundamentalist community. On the other hand, irony of ironies, Liberty University is a place that has elements of academic excellence."

Kimberly Easton, a reporter for WPXI-TV, graduated from Liberty in 1987 and worked in the Lynchburg market until 1999, covering Mr. Falwell for a variety of secular stations. She believes the news media has treated him fairly, and that he knew he would feel the heat for preaching fire and brimstone.

"I always perceived it that he knew he would be under scrutiny, he was up to the challenge of that scrutiny, and he tried to live the best life that he could," Ms. Easton said.

The Rev. William Glaze, pastor of Bethany Baptist Church in Homewood, earned his master's degree from Liberty in 1983. One night he and his wife were in a Lynchburg restaurant celebrating their wedding anniversary. Mr. Falwell and his wife were also there. Mr. Falwell recognized him as a student and came over the chat.

"When we got ready to leave, the people at the restaurant said we didn't have to worry about the bill. He had paid for our dinner and also left a tip. That's the kind of person he was."

Dr. Glaze said he usually agreed with Mr. Falwell's political positions, but not always with his tactics. "I thought his opposition to the Clinton administration was a little extreme," he said.

Mr. Falwell promoted a videotape that accused the Democratic president of murder plots and cocaine smuggling -- charges that proved baseless.

"It went beyond the facts, and it tarnished Falwell's reputation," said Duquesne University law professor Bruce Ledewitz, author of "American Religious Democracy: Coming to Terms with the End of Secular Politics."

Mr. Falwell was both symbol and catalyst for a reversal in how American Christians viewed political activism, he said. In 1965 he criticized the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., not for opposing segregation, but for mixing faith with politics, Dr. Ledewitz said.

"He said that religion was private, that ... a minister such as Dr. King should be winning souls," Dr. Ledewitz said.

"Over the course of his lifetime, the situation would turn completely. Liberals today are the ones who say that religion should be private, and conservatives are the ones saying that the Word must be preached in terms of public life. Jerry Falwell embodied that change. In many ways this change is a consequence of his activities."