Charles C. Childress, a doctorate of biochemistry, founded the company as a way to market his data acquisition and processing interfaces based on programmable calculators for medical, scientific, and industrial uses.

Charles C. Childress (born c. 1940 in Webb City, Missouri[1]) founded Midwest Scientific in 1970 or 1971 and formally incorporated it in downtown Olathe, Kansas, in 1972.

[3] While working for Upsher he studied for his doctorate in biochemistry at Johns Hopkins University,[4] after earning his Master of Science at the Kansas State College of Pittsburg, and before that earning his Bachelor of Science at the University of Great Falls while also serving in the U.S. Air Force.

By the mid-1970s the company had customers throughout the United States in Canada; when it came to out-of-state meetings, Childress preferred flying in his twin-engine private plane at the time.

It proved extremely popular,[10] prompting Childress to lead a team in designing the company's first full general-purpose microcomputer.

[16] By 1981, Midwest Scientific had primarily focused on providing after-market upgrade hardware products for SS-50 computers.

[17] By spring 1985, Midwest Scientific had gone out of business; between May and June that year, the company's remaining manufacturing equipment and spare parts were auctioned to the public.