Principal Joe Clark, Who Inspired Movie ‘Lean on Me’, Dies at 82
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.
FILE – In this Feb. 11, 1988, file photo, Joe Clark, principal of Eastside High School in Paterson, N.J., stands with rap group Run-DMC before the group gave a concert at the school in support of Clark’s way of running his school. 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, Dec. 29, 2020, after a long battle with an unspecified illness, his family said in statement. He was 82. (AP Photo/Peter Cannata, File)
His family said that Clark started teaching at a Paterson grade school in Passaic County, New Jersey, before becoming principal of PS 6 Grammar School. He was later appointed principal of the crime- and drug-ridden Eastside High School.
Morgan Freeman starred as Clark in the 1989 film “Lean on Me” that was loosely based on Clark’s tenure at Eastside.
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