He has lost a house through foreclosure and was forced to sell another that was in foreclosure.

Now, Jerry Doyle has lost one leg.

But he hasn't lost his fiery spirit.

Doyle, for years the bane of the Columbus City Council and a thorny irritant to the city's board of education, is back in the public eye. Less than four months after his leg was amputated below the knee because of complications related to diabetes, Doyle returned to his perch at school-board meetings in August.

"I was shocked to see him," said board member Stephanie Groce, the target of some of Doyle's arrows.

At 56, Doyle now gets around with a prosthetic leg and a walker. His wife, Rita, drives him Downtown to the board offices.

He might be familiar to some who saw him on TV railing against the City Council and school-board members about misspent money or other perceived injustices.

He's not about to go away, despite his health problems. Not when a combined school operating levy and bond issue are on the Nov. 4 ballot. "Nobody's holding them accountable for anything," he said of the school board last week.

He's still upset about the district's mismanaging its health-care fund four years ago. The district ended up spending $12.3 million out of its general fund and borrowing $5.6 million to make up a $13 million deficit.

"Before we write another blank check, we ought to find out what they did with the money," he said, referring to the ballot issue that would cost homeowners $275 per $100,000 of house value each year.

Doyle didn't say anything at his first meeting back last month. He stood quietly at the microphone during his three minutes before the board.

"Three minutes is a long time when it's silent," Groce said.

"That's my way of protesting that I can't speak," said Doyle, who served 3 1/2 months in jail in 2006 for disrupting board meetings.

He has battled public officials and employers, including a nursing home where he used to work as a janitor and protested the treatment of residents. Most notably, in the 1980s, he fought the T. Marzetti Co., where he had worked stacking boxes before he was fired in March 1980.

The company said he took too many breaks and talked to co-workers too much.

Doyle, who is black, said the firing was racially motivated.

He reached an out-of-court settlement after a judge ordered Marzetti to rehire Doyle and pay him $112,906 in back wages and punitive damages.

He didn't return to Marzetti, but his battles with the company followed him when he tried to find work elsewhere.

"I was considered a troublemaker," Doyle said. "Nobody would hire me, because of my fight with Marzetti." He sold his furniture to make ends meet.

He later found work as a janitor and a dishwasher at Denny's until he went on disability in 2000 because of his diabetes.

But he said his fight with Marzetti's awakened him. "I made a promise to God: Never again when I see something wrong not do what I can to make it right," he said.

In 1996, he tangled with the Columbus City Council when then-council President John P. Kennedy barred him from speaking. Kennedy complained that Doyle kept protesting two things: the city paying for police protection at a Ku Klux Klan rally, and his mistreatment by the school board.

Doyle filed a federal lawsuit over that. A judge dismissed that case in 1997, and a judge threw out a similar suit in 1999.

Doyle had become his own worst enemy, Kennedy said. "Early on, he had valid points, but after that, he became more of a farce, more of a circus.

"Jerry Doyle coming in with a white suit, accusing (Mayor) Mike Coleman of being a slave on the white man's plantation" was too much, Kennedy said.

Columbus lawyer John Waddy Jr., who represented Doyle in some legal battles, said, "The manner in which Jerry presents his points causes people to react in ways that are less than beneficial to Jerry."

But some people pay attention. In 2001, the school board paid Doyle $7,500 after a judge ruled that the board had violated his rights by preventing him from mentioning board members' names in a meeting.

The importance of that decision resonated throughout the country for people with similar stories. "They heard about Jerry Doyle's case. I got calls about it," Waddy said.

Doyle has a suit pending in federal court against Franklin County Sheriff Jim Karnes and the county commissioners. He contends that poor treatment he received in jail led to the loss of his leg.

Doyle regularly calls Bob Conners' Saturday morning radio show on WTVN (610 AM), updating him on what's going on at the school board. "I've never had anyone for Columbus schools call and say, 'This guy is a goof,'  " Conners said.

Pull Doyle away from the lectern or the telephone, and a different man emerges.

"He's always cordial," Groce said. "He's extraordinarily polite."

Doyle, a Springfield native, has been married for 38 years to Rita, 57. They have five children -- their three daughters graduated from Columbus schools and their two sons attended the schools -- and 11 grandchildren. They live in an apartment on Alum Creek Drive, in a building for senior citizens.

Rita Doyle quit her job as a home-health aide to care for her husband to keep him out of a nursing home.

"I support him in everything that he does. He stands up for the truth when other people don't," she said.

"I believe what he did was right."

God, Jerry Doyle said, blesses him with what he needs. "I speak from the heart."

mferenchik@dispatch.com