GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) – Joe Louis Clark, the baseball bat and megaphone-wielding director whose unwavering dedication to his students and uncompromising disciplinary methods inspired the 1989 film “ Lean on Me, ” died Tuesday at his Florida home after a long battle with an unspecified illness, his family said in a statement. He was 82.
Born in Rochelle, Georgia, on May 8, 1938, Clark’s family moved north to Newark, New Jersey when he was 6 years old. After graduating from Newark Central High School, Clark received his undergraduate degree from William Paterson College (now William Paterson University), a master’s degree from Seton Hall University, and an honorary degree from the US Sports Academy. Clark also served as a U.S. Army Reserve Sergeant and a drill instructor.
Clark began teaching at a Paterson elementary school in Essex County, NJ before becoming principal of the PS 6 Grammar School.
He was later hired as principal of the crime and drug-ridden Eastside High School. In one day, he dismissed 300 students for fighting, vandalism, teacher abuse and drug possession, raising the expectations of those left behind and constantly challenging them to do better. As he wandered the halls with a megaphone and baseball bat, Clark’s unorthodox methods won him admirers and critics alike across the country. President Ronald Reagan offered Clark a position as a policy adviser in the White House following his high school success.
Morgan Freeman starred as Clark in the 1989 film “Lean on Me,” which was loosely based on Clark’s tenure at Eastside.
After retiring from Eastside in 1989, Clark worked for six years as director of Essex County Detention House, a juvenile detention center in Newark. He also wrote “Setting the Law: Joe Clark’s Strategy to Save Our Schools,” describing his methods of turning Eastside High around.
He retired to Gainesville, Florida.
Clark leaves behind his children, Joetta, Hazel and JJ, and grandchildren, Talitha, Jorell and Hazel. His wife, Gloria, led the way in death.