“Mike Adams became a champion of the First Amendment in the university context after his academic colleagues turned on him for becoming a conservative,” said education expert Adam Kissel in an email to The College Fix. “He fought and won an academic freedom and free speech lawsuit that vindicated the rights of faculty members across the Fourth Circuit (West Virginia, Maryland, North and South Carolina, and Virginia).”

Professor Mike Adams, an atheist turned Christian conservative known as a firebrand and staunch defender of the unborn and Constitutional rights, has died. He was 55.

The longtime University of North Carolina-Wilmington criminology professor was found dead at his home Thursday. Police have yet to release the cause of death. A local news outlet, citing police dispatch banter, reports that a gunshot wound was involved.

Adams is best known for successfully suing UNCW for denying him a promotion because of his Christian, conservative beliefs. In 2014, Adams won a retroactive promotion and back pay, as well as $700,000 in legal fees, in a decision that capped off a seven-year court battle.

Adams’ lengthy court case “in the face of so much personal animosity took enormous strength and resolve,” said Jay Schalin, a scholar with the North Carolina-based Martin Center for Academic Renewal, in an email to The College Fix.

Schalin said Adams will always have “a tremendous legacy in the world of higher education and the fight for free inquiry because of Adams v. UNC-Wilmington.”

Adams was also well known as a contributing columnist for the conservative news outlets Townhall and the Daily Wire. He was a frequent critic of leftist higher education bias. He was also a prolific pro-life speaker and involved in the Christian campus apologetics group Summit Ministries.

“Our whole team at Summit is grieved over the loss of our beloved faculty member and friend, @MikeSAdams. He taught students about the 1st Amendment and gave them tools to defend the unborn and speak up against threats to religious freedoms on their college campuses,” the ministry tweeted Friday.

Adams “fought fiercely to preserve the right to free speech for every American. He was a soldier and a friend who was bold, committed to truth, and deeply invested in his students’ success,” the group said.

Friends and colleagues said Adams leaves a legacy defending academic freedom.

“Mike Adams became a champion of the First Amendment in the university context after his academic colleagues turned on him for becoming a conservative,” said education expert Adam Kissel in an email to The College Fix. “He fought and won an academic freedom and free speech lawsuit that vindicated the rights of faculty members across the Fourth Circuit (West Virginia, Maryland, North and South Carolina, and Virginia).”

Kissel added that Adams exposed even more leftist bias through research.

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