After a lifetime in the wood flooring industry, Mark Long retired on Dec. 31.
Long's retirement comes after almost 12 years as technical director at Stauf USA (Cordova, Tenn.), but his beginnings in the industry go back to his early childhood, growing up in his father’s flooring business that began in 1950, when his dad made 3 cents a foot for installing wood flooring. It was the era when wood flooring was prevalent, and business was booming. Born in 1959, Long started on job sites as a young child back when the wood floors were hand-cut and hand-nailed.
“We had the old walnut pegged floors,” Long recalls. “The first thing I ever did was, they would drill the holes, and my job was to squirt glue in them and tap the walnut pegs in them.”
As he got old enough to do more, he progressed to carrying in wood bundles, racking out floors and nailing them with the manual nailer.
Business was so good that his father retired from the company at age 54, turning it over to Long’s brother. Long worked at the family business as he attended Memphis State University (now the University of Memphis), and after graduation, he joined full time, managing 18 crews.
When his brother died suddenly, the family sold the business, and Long began a new stage of his career working in sales. His first job was at Global Market Products in 1995. “We were one of the first companies to start really importing products from different countries and selling to distributors all over North America,” Long explains. “That was just on the front edge of things opening up for global trade.”
It was also in the early 1990s when Long attended his first National Oak Flooring Manufacturers Association school, beginning a new stage of his career in which he was heavily involved in teaching the trade at the NOFMA schools, held twice a year in Memphis, and at the National Wood Flooring Association schools held throughout the country. He also was among the group chosen to go teach a school in Sydney in 1999.
Long cites those years teaching as his favorite memories from the industry. “I learned so much from people in different parts of the country and how they did things differently,” he says. “And over the years, I made some friendships that will last forever … Even when I was working in sales, I would run across people, and they'd look at me and say, ‘I remember you taught me in one of those schools.’”
With his extensive time devoted to the schools, Long was one of the first people in the industry, along with people such as Woody Hilscher, Bill Costello and Don Conner, to receive the NWFA’s Craftsman, Master Craftsman, Advanced Master Craftsman and Vanguard degrees when that program began.
When Long began his time as technical director at Stauf, they developed Stauf University, teaching hundreds of students about adhesives, job-site conditions, and how installations fail when small details are missed. And much of his time has been spent on the phone talking with contractors. “What I love every day is helping people talk through situations and make sure they don’t go in the wrong direction on a job site,” he says, adding that it’s often basic things like spread rate mistakes, the wrong trowel and misunderstanding site conditions that gets people in trouble.
"Mark has been a constant. He is has had a long career in the flooring business and has touched many lives, as he has lived out his faith in front of every one of them," Stauf VP of Sales & Marketing David Ford told WFB. "I will miss him being around every day, but he has earned his place in the industry and his time to move to the next chapter. He has been a good mentor to many, leader to others and, most of all, friends to everyone. I think more than anything, I can say that I am proud to call him my coworker, friend and confidant, but more than that I am proud to call him my brother. I will miss him more than he knows."
Going forward, Long says he plans to spend more time visiting family, golfing, fishing and hunting, as well as taking a cruise with his wife, Jill, in Alaska next summer.
He shared this parting advice for those in the industry: “Whatever job you’re doing in this industry, learn as much as you can. Be the best at it—better than anyone else—and it will push you to the next level.”
(Those who want to connect with Long after retirement can reach him at [email protected].)
Mark Long (in green shirt) teaching at the NOFMA school in Memphis in September 1998.
Mark Long (in green shirt) teaching at the NOFMA school in Memphis in September 1998.
Down under: Mark Long (center) teaches at a school held in Sydney in 1999.
Down under: Mark Long (in white shirt) teaches at a school held in Sydney in 1999.
Shown (left to right) are David Ford, Mark Long and John Bast III at the Surfaces trade show in Las Vegas.
Mark Long does a video shoot for Stauf USA.
Mark Long teaches at Stauf USA University.
