Stanley Kaplan
| Stanley H. Kaplan | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Stanley Kaplan May 24, 1919 New York City |
| Died | August 23, 2009 (aged 90) New York City |
| Nationality | USA |
| Other names | Cram King |
| Alma mater | City College of New York |
| Occupation | Founder of Kaplan, Inc. |
| Known for | Test-preparation |
| Spouse(s) | Rita Gwirtzman Kaplan |
Stanley Henry Kaplan (May 24, 1919 – August 23, 2009) was an American businessman and scholastic test preparation pioneer who founded Kaplan, Inc., in 1938.
Kaplan was born in New York City to Jewish immigrant parents from the present-day countries of Latvia and Belarus. He grew up in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn. He was the son of a plumbing contractor.
He entered City College of New York at the age of 16 and graduated Phi Beta Kappa and second in his class in 1939. He received his M.S.E. (Master of Science in Education) from City College in 1941.
An aspiring doctor, Kaplan hoped to enter medicine, but claimed was rejected from all five New York City area medical schools because ethnic quotas for Jewish students had already been filled. The rejections by the medical schools because of his religious heritage left an impression on Kaplan which would last a lifetime.
He conceived the idea to issue each prospective student applicant a test he considered fair, with the hope that students would be admitted to schools based on concerns such as the applicant's ability, rather than on the needs of the school. Kaplan believed that he could create a tutoring company which could help prospective students do well on what, at the time, was widely called the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT).
In 1938, Kaplan founded the Stanley H. Kaplan Co. as a tutoring service based in the basement of his parents' home in Brooklyn, New York. Kaplan's company became successful in the wake of World War II, when the United States government passed the GI Bill, which caused a large increase in college enrollment among American veterans.
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