Stanley L. Klos

Stanley Yavneh "Stan" Klos (born January 18, 1954), is an American businessman, historical preservationist, and former basketball player. Klos was a Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate in 1994, challenging Robert C. Byrd for the West Virginia seat. In 2011 he married Naomi Yavneh Klos, Ph.D. and changed his middle name from "Louis" to "Yavneh", his wife's maiden name. The couple reside in New Orleans, where Dr. Naomi Yavneh Klos is the Director of the Loyola New Orleans University Honors Program.

Klos was born in New York City to Dr. Louis A. Klos, founder of the National Catholic Business Education Association, and Eileen Hundertmark. Klos became interested in historical preservation in his early teens, acquiring antiques at flea markets in the 1960s.

NCAA I career

From 1972 to 1974 Klos played for St. Peter's College as a Center/Forward. Between 1975 and 1977 he represented Idaho State University, also as a center/Forward.

International Basketball Federation

Klos played for Italy's Amaro Harrys Bologna of the Italian Basketball Association. He also was the Captain of the United States Basketball Team which participated in European International Tournaments in 1979.

In the 1970s he turned his pursuits to classic automobiles.

From the 1980s onwards, Klos began preserving historic properties threatened by demolition, eventually accumulating 32, including properties in New Jersey, West Virginia, Florida and Pennsylvania.

In the 1980s, as a real estate entrepreneur, he acquired RE/MAX] of Pennsylvania, managing a marketing mix that increased yearly commission revenue from $240K to $36 million in 12 years. As a Regional Owner, he was involved in the expansion of RE/MAX into the world’s largest real estate company.

In the 1990s, Klos began collecting historical documents, and putting these primary sources online at hundreds of URLs named after their notable subjects or authors, such as (benjaminfranklin.org), (fortpitt.org), (worldwarII.org). These documents were re-formed into award-winning exhibits that are featured at museums, universities, and special events all across the United States.

Klos has delivered keynote speeches at numerous events including the grand opening of the Franklin D. Roosevelt American Heritage Center Museum’s grand opening and the 2003 re-entombment of First Lady Martha & President Samuel Huntington. His work has appeared in hundreds of print and digital publications including History Channel's Brad Meltzer'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.”

In 2004, Klos, as a board member of the James Monroe Foundation (JMF), proposed that the foundation acquire and restore the family farm and birthplace of President James Monroe. On April 4, 2005, Westmoreland County signed a 99-year lease with JMF, and Klos was appointed Chairman of the James Monroe Birthplace Commission. Under the stewardship of the JMF President G. William Thomas, archaeologists from the College of William & Mary began the site study for restoration in 2006.

Klos was co-founder of The James Monroe Scholarship Award established in 2001 by the James Monroe Foundation. The award is an annual essay contest for juniors and seniors enrolled in a public, private or home-school high school programs. All 1st-, 2nd- and 3rd-place essays are posted online at jamesmonroe.org.

Klos is the co-founder of Dinosaur Safaris, Inc., in Shell, Wyoming. The company is headed by paleontologist Bob Simon. Under Simon's stewardship, four fully articulated dinosaurs–Camarasaurus, Stegosaurus, Diplodocus, and Camptosaurus–have been discovered.

President Who? Forgotten Founders examines the origins of the U.S. Presidencyand includes biographies of four Presidents of the Continental Congress and ten Presidents of the United States in Congress Assembled serving before George Washington from 1774- 1788. Featuring many pre-1789 letters, resolutions, treaties, and laws signed as President of the United States, the book relies heavily on primary sources as evidence the office existed before 1789.

America's Four Republics: The More or Less United States tells the story of the 15-year founding period of the United States, and details Klos' views about the different concepts of the American Republic which were held at the time.

In 1999 Klos found The Virtualology Project, a website designed with its own search engine, Evisum, hosting historical documents, art, natural history research and biographies, and coupled with an online research model including over 7,500 unique URL addresses of notable topics. It hosts a copyrighted, edited version of Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography under its FamousAmericans.net website. Virtualology created an online educational venue where students published their work on the relevant websites. These educational sites were organized into five virtual museums and one virtual library. Each domain name became an exclusive student-publishing web site. Student submissions were presented through their teachers and routed directly to the individual sites either to the URLS' editing sponsors or to Virtualology Editors. Editing sponsors were educators from a variety of educational institutions including museums, libraries, foundations, universities, and historical societies who became responsible for their URL’s content. Virtualology created an environment where students published their work on URLS named for the topic of their research. 13 months after Virtualology's launch USA Today voted it as one of its “Hot Sites”.

As 1992-1994 West Virginia Republican State Committee  Finance Chairman, he turned around an under performing Republican State Political Committee by completely changing its business model and strategy. Grew annual contributions by 750%. As1994 Republican Nominee U.S. Senate - won the West Virginia Republican Party's nomination for U.S. Senate after defeating physician Arthur R. Gindin in the primary 61% to 39%. Campaigned as a "sacrificial lamb" against Robert C. Byrd participating in the Republican U.S. Senatorial Committee’s strategy to re-capture a majority in the United States Senate in 1994. Strategy was successful as Robert C. Byrd (D), although elected 290,495, 69% to Stan Klos (R), 130,441, 31%, spent $1,550,354 to Klos' $267,165. Additionally the Democratic Party invested over $1 million in that State's U.S. Senatorial Campaign to the Republican Party's $15,000. The GOP captured a majority in the U.S. Senate. The highlights of the campaign included the hiring of an actor to play Robert C. Byrd who toured in staged Statewide Debates when the incumbent refused Klos's invitation for a series of formal Senatorial Debates. The campaign also organized successful demonstrations against the Bill and Hillary Clinton National Health Care Bus as it traveled through West Virginia in the summer of 1994. Senator Byrd, while the bill was being debated on the Senate floor rose suggesting the brakes be put on approving National Health Care measure while the bus was completing its tour in WV. To Klos's credit, the campaign did not implement the "Death by a Thousand Cuts" plan proposed by strategists which was later acknowledged in speeches given and letters written by U.S. Senator Byrd.

• 1996 State Treasurer Nominee - recruited by WV State Committee Chairman Steve La Rose, Klos uncovered a scheme to circumvent the WV State Constitution's ban on investing State funds into equities during his campaign for State Treasurer. Klos challenged the “West Virginia Trust Fund” which was declared unconstitutional by the WV Supreme Court on February 25, 1997. The following year an amendment to the State Constitution allowing equity investments was proposed to the voters and passed by a 71 to 29 percent margin. The Wheeling News Register summed up Klos’s efforts in their Editorial "Klos Took A Stand Based on What is Right"

• US Senate 1994 Byrd (D) versus Klos (R)
• Robert C. Byrd Letter to Stanley L. Klos October 31, 1997
• SUPREME COURT OF APPEALS OF WEST VIRGINIA West Virginia Trust Fund declared Unconstitutional February 25, 1997
• "Klos Took A Stand Based on What is Right" Wheeling News Redgister, West Virginia September 29, 1997