Stanley Y. Klos

Picture Courtesy of: History Channel

Brad Meltzer's Decoded, The Declaration of Independence,

Stanley Yavneh Klos is an accomplished author, entrepreneur, retired professor, and former player in the Italian Basketball Association. His diverse career spans multiple fields, including sports, academia, business, and literature, highlighting his versatility and leadership in various arenas.  

Stan serves as the President of Historic.us Corporation, a non-profit organization committed to encouraging the public to engage with history through primary source exhibits. Since 1999, Historic.us exhibits have been featured at numerous universities, national historic sites, libraries, and museums. Alongside these exhibits, Stan has authored five books focused on U.S. history and its founding, emphasizing the importance of primary sources. His most recent work, “The Congressional Evolution of the United States of America.”, explores the development of the nation through its legislative history.

As a public speaker, Stan has keynoted numerous special events including the re-entombment of First Lady Martha & President Samuel Huntington. His work has appeared in hundreds of print and digital publications including History Channel's “Decoded, The Declaration of Independence,” U.S. News & World Report 2006 cover story, “Washington? Get In Line" & the Discovery Channel’s “Unsolved History: Plots To Kill Lincoln.”

Stan is a passionate real estate historic preservationist, having redeveloped 32 historically significant properties across five states, including Vaudeville theaters, Gold Rush Mansions, and 19th Century Churches. He has also co-founded several initiatives dedicated to preserving history, notably the James Monroe Birthplace Commission. 

As a real estate entrepreneur, Stan acquired RE/MAX of Pennsylvania n/w and skillfully implemented a marketing strategy that grew annual commission revenues from $240,000 to $36 million. He later applied this expertise in academia, serving as the Assistant Director of the Loyola University Honors Program and teaching a range of collegiate courses, including a MBA Real Estate Investment class.

In 1999 Stan established an online education publishing company that acquired over 8,500 URLs to publish thousands of student papers. By 2002, the Virtualology student publishing project exceeded 500,000 web page views a day. With the explosion of education sites in the 00's and Wikipedia's meteoric success, the student publishing model was discontinued. Many of the historic domain names became biographical websites (i.e. johnhancock.org, sojournertruth.com, articlesofconfederation.com), while hundreds of others, like annefrank.org, were donated to non-profit education entities all over the world.

In November 2001, Stan Klos donated the url, www.AnneFrank.org, to the Anne Frank House. The website was visited over 8.6 million times in 2015, by 6.7 million unique visitors, with a total of 57 million page views. Most visitors were located in the USA, followed by the Netherlands, the UK, Germany, Mexico, Italy, France, Brazil, Canada and Spain.

Stan is the co-founder of Dinosaur Safaris, Inc (DSI), which was a private paleontology company whose quarry site was located in Shell Wyoming yielding fossil holdings that include five fully articulated dinosaurs. The company's Stegosaurus, the world’s most complete, is on permanent exhibit at the London National History Museum, while its Camarasaurus is on permanent exhibit at the Fukui Prefectural Dinosaur Museum in Japan.

Stan was an accomplished athlete, having played NCAA Division I basketball and reaching the "Elite Eight" with Idaho State University. He later continued his basketball career internationally, playing for Amaro Harry's in Bologna as part of the Italian Basketball Association. In 1978, Stan captained a U.S. basketball team that competed in the International Invitational Basketball Tournament in Bologna, Italy. 

He has served on a variety of boards, reflecting his wide-ranging interests and commitment to public service. These include the West Virginia Independent Colleges & Universities, the James Monroe Memorial Foundation Advisory Board, the Pittsburgh YMCA Family Camp, the Mercy Center of New Jersey, and the Alumni Board of Directors at Idaho State University.

Stan was deeply involved in political activities during the 1990s, notably serving as the Finance Chairman for the West Virginia Republican State Committee. In 1994, he ran as the Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate, challenging the long-standing incumbent, Robert C. Byrd. Later, as the Republican candidate for West Virginia State Treasurer, he spearheaded efforts to wrest control of the State Pension funds from the West Virginia Trust Fund and return it to the authority of the State Treasurer. In 1997, Stan also played a significant role in advocating for a statewide referendum to amend the West Virginia Constitution, which allowed the investment of state funds in equities.

Stan’s education includes a BA in American Studies, BS in Zoology, MA in Rhetorical Theory & Historic Public Address and an "ABD" in Mass Communications and Marketing. He attended, respectively, St. Peter’s College, Idaho State University and The Pennsylvania State University.