Principal Joe Louis Clark, the baseball bat and bullhorn-wielding principal who inspired the 1989 film “Lean on Me,” is dead.
His family said that Clark died at his Florida home on Tuesday December 29 2020 after a long battle with an unspecified illness. Joe Louis Clark was 82.
Born in Rochelle, Georgia, on May 8 1938, his family moved north to Newark New Jersey, when he was 6 years old.
After graduating from Newark Central High School, Clark received his bachelor’s degree from William Paterson College (now William Paterson University), a master’s degree from Seton Hall University, and an honorary doctorate from the U.S. Sports Academy.
He began teaching at a Paterson grade school in Essex County, N.J., before becoming principal of PS 6 Grammar School.
In one day, Clark expelled 300 students for fighting, vandalism, abusing teachers, and drug possession, and lifted the expectations of those who remained, continually challenging them to perform better.
Roaming the hallways with a bullhorn and a baseball bat, Clark’s disciplinary methods won him both admirers and critics nationwide.
Joe Clark was offered a White House policy advisor position after his success at the high school by then US President Ronald Reagan.
Morgan Freeman starred as Clark in the 1989 film “Lean on Me” which was loosely based on Clark's tenure at Eastside.
When Joe retired from Eastside in 1989, he worked as the director of Essex County Detention House, a juvenile detention center in Newark for six years.
He also served as a U.S. Army Reserve sergeant and a drill instructor.
Clark who finally retired to Gainesville is survived by his children, Joetta, Hazel and JJ, and grandchildren, Talitha, Jorell and Hazel.
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