Joe Clark, the inspiration for John G. Avildsen’s 1989 film Lean On Me has died.Clark’s family shared in a statement that the retired New Jersey high school principal died on Tuesday in his Gainesville, Florida home after a long battle with illness.
He was 82.Born in Rochelle, Georgia in 1938, Clark is most known as the ambitious principal of New Jersey’s Eastside High School who expelled nearly 300 students for drug possession, vandalism and fighting, and challenged the remaining students to strive for better.
To help him inspire his students and get his inspirational messages across, Clark carried a bullhorn and baseball bat through the Eastside hallways.Gaining fame for his success at Eastside, the former U.S.
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