SCI COMMUNITY'S BIG LOSS: Stan Kosloski's impact bigger than we'll ever know

Stan from his days coaching the wheelchair basketball team in Santa Rosa

We lost one of the greats of the spinal cord injury community last Thursday when our good friend, Stan Kosloski, a Petaluma resident, Paralympics Champion, disability rights activist and a lifetime full of incredible achievements and humility passed away from congestive heart failure at the age of 73. He’s survived by his wife Carol, daughter Jennifer, brother Edward and niece Amy.

His love of wheelchair basketball made him nationally known for his skills and took him around the world. He was one of the elite players selected for the Pan Am Wheelchair Games in Kingston, Jamaica, in 1971 and was one of eight players named to the U.S. team for the International Paralympics in Heidelberg, Germany, in 1972. The U.S. won the gold that year. In his career, Stan averaged better than 21 points a game and scored more than 15,000 points. He was ultimately inducted into the National Wheelchair Basketball Association Hall of Fame in 2005. 

Stan from his days as a wheelchair basketball player. Notice the wheelchairs that were being used in that era.

Armed with a great sense of humor and humility, he was the gentlest gentleman and the kindest soul you’d ever meet, always advocating for those with a disability and always supporting those in need. He was the organizer and leader of the Sonoma-Marin spinal cord injury support group. He met his incredible wife, Carol, at a rehab center in 1967 and they were married three years later. 

He was an outstanding athlete at Woodrow Wilson High School in Middletown, Connecticut until, at the age 17, a car in which he was riding struck a telephone pole and left him paralyzed. Stan went on to earn a bachelor's degree from Trinity College and a master's degree from the University of Connecticut. He had a distinguished career advocating for the rights of people with disabilities, serving as Assistant Director of the state Office of Protection and Advocacy for Persons with Disabilities and in the Governor's office coordinating the implementation of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

There will not be any funeral services but a celebration of Stan’s life will be scheduled at a future date.