MCH was founded in 1928 by noted educator Dr. Forrest E. Long. Dr. Long was a Professor of Education at New York University. He was also an author, editor, publisher, administrator, and innovator. While at NYU, he became the editor and publisher of Junior High Clearing House, an educational journal for secondary schools. The focus of the journal was to be a “clearing house” of ideas and research about the new “junior high school” as grades six through nine were known at that time.

Distribution of Junior High Clearing House to secondary school principals soon evolved into the first commercial school mailing list and became the forerunner of today’s educational mailing list industry. Before the age of computers, the mailing lists were maintained mechanically on addressograph plates. By the early 1930s, the New York City office in Rockefeller Center became too small, and a branch office was opened in Sweet Springs, Missouri, Dr. Long’s birthplace.

In addition to being a journal publisher and mailing list and mailing services supplier, the company was also a book publisher under the names Inor Publishing and Roxbury Press. In the 1930s, the company’s Inor Guidance Series by Richard D. Allen became the national best seller in books for high school guidance counselors. The company pioneered when it published Sex Education as Human Relations by Lester Kirkendahl, which was recognized as the first textbook that dared to consider sex education as a topic of possible interest to schools.

Among many other educational publications was another of a pioneering nature, Social Studies Skills, organized with an individual self-testing key enabling students to progress at their own rates. This supplementary junior high school social studies book was written by Dr. Long and his wife Dr. Helen Halter, also an educator. First published in 1942, it became a best seller and went through eight editions.

Dr. Long’s national contacts had expanded his interests beyond school-based education. In 1942, he was appointed by the Secretary of the Treasury, Henry Morgenthau, Jr., as Chairman of a National Tax Commission. In 1944, his work in safety education was recognized when President Franklin Roosevelt arranged for him to have a two-year leave of absence from New York University to serve as manager of the National Safety Council in Chicago. This assignment included negotiations with John L. Lewis and other labor leaders, as well as national radio speeches and participation in events across the nation. In 1945 and 1946, President Truman appointed Dr. Long to the President’s Highway Safety Conference in Washington, D.C.

In 1962, the Longs retired from education and moved the entire company to Sweet Springs. MCH experienced a period of great growth. Dr. Long’s wide interests were reflected in the operations of MCH. Mailing lists were extended to encompass governmental institutions, libraries, hospitals, and religious institutions, among others. The book business was expanded to include “Books of the World,” which imported books from foreign countries to be used in foreign language classes in American high schools.

In 1968, a new 26,000 square-foot building was built and the letter shop was expanded. By the mid-70s, mailing lists and direct marketing services were growing at such a rate that they demanded full attention for continued expansion. They became the exclusive effort of the company in the 1990s when Dr. Edwin Tutt Long, a cardiovascular surgeon, and his wife, Mary M. Long, an administrative head nurse, agreed to take early retirement to head the company. The second generation of Longs brought a lifetime of experience and expertise in the healthcare industry. Their interest and knowledge were key to the expansion of the company’s healthcare related databases.

Peter E. Long, MCH CEO and grandson of the founder, joined the company in 1993 after eight years with Coopers and Lybrand, the international accounting and consulting firm. He left his position as a senior manager in the company’s Information Systems Consultant Group where he had worked with major corporate and institutional clients in the U.S. and abroad.

John F. Hood, MCH President, joined the management team in 1997. His experience included nine years as general manager of MDR (Market Data Retrieval) and seven years at CMGI where he was senior vice president responsible for its educational mailing lists.

The 1990s was a period of renewal and growth for the company. The Sweet Springs facility was remodeled twice, essentially being converted from a publisher’s warehouse into an office building. Today, the research compiling staff makes thousands of calls a day to update MCH’s comprehensive database. Additionally, new direct marketing products and services were added to MCH’s menu of marketing solutions and a new Oracle® database computer system was implemented.

In 2010, MCH acquired the assets of Quality Education Data—including an updated and enhanced version of the QED education database with more than 4 million K-12 educators—from Market Data Retrieval. MCH experienced significant expansion as a result of the QED acquisition by adding new clients and staff. Plus, the enhanced and expanded QED database positioned MCH to significantly increase it leadership position in the education data market.

In 2011, MCH acquired Wilson Marketing Group, a database management and market research firm that specialized in the early childhood market. The combination of the Wilson Marketing Group early childhood file and MCH’s K-12 database is key to education marketers wanting to increase their reach beyond the K-12 market. Plus, this acquisition reinforced MCH’s commitment and brand as a leader in the field of education marketing services.

Today, the company’s 80+ employees’ experience, knowledge, and dedication represent the heritage of Dr. Forrest Long and the spirit of MCH. The company’s focus is offering comprehensive business-to-institution (B2i) databases and mailing lists. MCH’s comprehensive database features information on 1.1 million institutions and 8 million decision makers. The largest institutional markets include governments, hospitals, medical practices, schools, school districts, and churches. The research department conducts custom telephone research for MCH customers. In addition, the company offers mailing list brokerage and data processing services.

Dr. Long’s foresight of a company serving marketers and institutions (B2i) was a wise one—each segment of the institutional market represents a major, growing share of the U.S. economy. MCH believes in creating long-term relationships with both its clients and employees. The company’s philosophy is to serve its customers well, so their businesses will grow, which in turn, means MCH’s business will grow as a result of the customers’ success. This customer philosophy and commitment to quality and accurate data is the true history, present, and future of MCH Strategic Data.