Made famous by his leadership style and being portrayed by Morgan Freeman in the movie Lean on Me. He is the father to two Olympians and father in law to one other. Perhaps the greatest family in American middle distance history. His son coached all three and is currently the head coach at Stanford.
RIP Mr. Clark
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cnn.com/cnn/2020/12/30/us/joe-clark-patterson-school-obit-trnd/index.html
Joe Clark - inspiration for Lean on Me - and father of Joetta , Hazel and JJ dies at 82
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I actually sat next to him on a flight once. We talked about everything from running to growing vegetables. Interesting guy for sure.
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I wonder what he thought about BLM? Seemed like a no nonsense, reasonable person, and certainly a good role model. RIP.
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RIP Joe wrote:
I actually sat next to him on a flight once. We talked about everything from running to growing vegetables. Interesting guy for sure.
I had a similar experience. I sat behind him at a meet at MSG one of his daughters was running in not long after the movie came out. Very nice man -
Wow...
I didn't know he was the father of Joetta and Hazel Clark and the father in law of Jearl.
I learned something new just in this thread. I wish they had spoken a bit about the legacy of Joe Clark when they spoke of Joetta and/or Hazel. -
The family passed along a link to the following release:
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/joe-clark-paterson-new-jerseys-principled-principal-has-passed-away-301199196.html -
My high school was about 30 mins to the west of Eastside and we had an exchange program with them back in the mid 80s.....in the fall a group of our students went to Patterson Eastside for the day and in the spring they came to our school. When we went there we were greeted with the baseball bat and the bullhorn and led to the auditorium....then we listened to Mr. Clark and learned about the struggles that a school in that environment had to endure. Before that day I was not appreciative enough of the luxuries I had at my school. That day at Eastside was memorable for me and shaped the way I look at the world to this day. RIP Joe Clark.
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Mr. Clark was my neighbor for many years. He was such a nice and friendly man — RIP!
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Lean On Me is a great movie.
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Legend
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FormerGator wrote:
Mr. Clark was my neighbor for many years. He was such a nice and friendly man — RIP!
I know the whole family; Joe was definitely an accomplished and tough individual, but I have never heard him described as "nice and friendly". Joe was certainly a man of honor and deserving of respect, but I doubt even his kids would describe him as nice and friendly. Albeit, I know Joe from many decades ago and I've heard he mellowed out in his old age. -
I only knew him in old age so he must have mellowed out. Can’t say I knew him well though — just had the occasional neighborly interaction.
