Principal Joe Clark, who inspired film 'Lean on Me,' dies greenwichtime.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from greenwichtime.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
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He roamed the hallways of Paterson Eastside High School with a bullhorn and bat, wielding a brand of drill-instructor discipline that drew both admirers and critics alike.
He held news conferences at 7 a.m. and once expelled 300 students for fighting, vandalism, abusing teachers, and drug possession – all in a single day.
And he left such an indelible mark that John Legend, Wendy Calhoun and LeBron James were preparing to create a TV drama about him 30 years after his retirement.
Joe Louis Clark, a Georgia-born, longtime South Orange resident who appeared on the cover of Time magazine and became the inspiration for the film “Lean On Me,” at his home in Gainesville, Florida Tuesday night after a long, unspecified illness, his family said.
Joe Clark, Paterson, New Jersey s Principled Principal, Has Passed Away
The No-Nonsense Educator was a Mentor for Students to Lean On
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PATERSON, N.J., Dec. 29, 2020 /PRNewswire/ Joe Louis Clark, the baseball bat and bullhorn-wielding Principal whose unwavering commitment to his students and uncompromising disciplinary methods at Paterson, New Jersey s Eastside High School inspired the 1989 film
Lean on Me, has passed away. A longtime resident of South Orange, NJ, Clark (82) retired to Gainesville, Florida. He was at home and surrounded by his family when he succumbed to his long battle with illness on December 29, 2020.
Appointed principal of the crime and drug-ridden Eastside High School, Clark’s unorthodox methods for turning the school around won him both admirers and critics nationwide.
Joe Lewis Clark, principal from Lean On Me, dead at 82
By Associated Press article
PATERSON, NJ - FEBRUARY 1988: Joe Clark, principal of Eastside High School in Patterson, New Jersey, poses for a photo in the school hallways in February of 1988 in Paterson New Jersey. (Photo by Joe McNally/Getty Images)
New Jersey - Joe Louis Clark, the baseball bat and bullhorn-wielding principal whose unwavering commitment to his students and uncompromising disciplinary methods inspired the 1989 film Lean on Me, died at his Florida home on Tuesday after a long battle with an unspecified illness, his family said in statement. He was 82.