Joe Louis Clark, an uncompromising educator who made national headlines by roaming the halls of Paterson s Eastside High School wielding a baseball bat, has died at 82.
Clark died Tuesday at his home in Florida, surrounded by family, after a long illness, his family said.
Before meeting with the Reagan administration, appearing on the cover of Time magazine and inspiring the 1989 biopic Lean on Me (with Morgan Freeman as Clark), he arrived at the troubled high school in 1982 and quickly cracked down on students and faculty.
Over a six-year tenure as Eastside s principal, Clark was both lauded and criticized for his tough approach.