Steve Mollo sat at a solid oak table in the conference room of Brown County Abstract Co. last week, as he has done a thousand times before.

Roughly 4,000 or 5,000 times, by his calculations.

Brown County Abstract Co. averages a few hundred closings a year, Mollo said, in the 20 years he has overseen operations.

“I’ve done 4,000 or 5,000 closings on this table myself,” he said.

He once told his father-in-law a larger table was needed for the conference room, after handling closings with businesses purchasing large amounts of land in the county.

His father-in-law, Raymond Gray, had been in the corporate litigation department of Barnes and Thornburg before he came to Brown County Abstract.

Gray told his son-in-law that he had sat at the last big table, “no more 10 lawyers on this side, 10 on that side,” Mollo said.

He’d had enough of litigation, Mollo said.

“This is it right here. Pull that chair up and squeeze in, just like we’re at the house about to play cards. If you want the three-piece suit and all that stuff, you can go to Columbus, Indy, Martinsville – but you won’t get that here.”

Gray took over Brown County Abstract Co. from Florence Bradley, who opened the business in the 1940s, which Mollo said was “quite the accomplishment” for a woman after WWII.

She did all the real estate law in the county, Mollo said, and offered the practice to Gray, if he moved to Brown County.

“That sounded pretty good to him,” Mollo said.

“That’s how it started.”

The table has been a solid and constant structure in the office, as well as the countless paintings by Brown County artists like Adolf Schulz and Curry Bohm.

There are also about 15,000 files in Mollo’s office, all about Brown County properties.

At the end of this month, everything will find a new home, as Mollo is moving into his next chapter: retirement.

‘Mom and pop stuff’

Mollo was born and raised in Richmond, Ind., where he graduated high school in 1974.

After high school he attended Franklin College and studied biology, graduating in 1978.

There he met his wife, Heather.

Being a short drive from their university in Franklin, the couple would come down to the Brown County for visits.

“Wow, it’d be nice to live here,” they would say to one another.

After Heather’s parents moved to Brown County in the mid-1970s, Steve and Heather made their own way to the hills.

They made a life for themselves in Brown County, buying a mobile home on Mt. Liberty Road, where they lived for three or four years before moving near Fruitdale.

After Heather finished law school and joined her father’s practice at Brown County Abstract, Steve obtained his master’s degree in business from Butler University.

With biology, Mollo had hoped to go into entomology, wildlife management, ecology or being a park ranger.

“It sounded good at the time,” he said.

“I did not know there were rattlesnakes in Indiana,” he said.

At Franklin College, Mollo had a professor who said the class was coming to Brown County to look for rattlesnakes.

”I said, ‘That’s okay you go.’ I didn’t know there were (venomous) snakes in Brown County,” he said.

“I love the outdoors anyway.”

In Richmond, which is corn country, Mollo said that wildlife was limited to quail and deer.

“Here you had everything.”

He then thought about pursuing business school, but was not sold on the idea. He then saw that there would be more opportunities for him in the business world.

His first job out of school was at the Nashville State Bank, then he went into commercial lending as a credit analyst.

In the late 1980s Steve had an opportunity to join Brown County Abstract Co. with Heather, his father-in-law and brother-in-law.

With his spouse being an attorney and Gray doing real estate law in the county, Mollo said that they had gotten the business going, and he was able to join as an employee. After several years on the team, underwriters acknowledged Mollo as an authorized signer on behalf of the title work company they were working with at the time.

Mollo was able to make a living in Nashville at Brown County Abstract, no longer required to wear suits and having a flexible schedule, allowing him to pick up his sons from school and take them to the ball diamonds.

The trade-off, he said, was the salary.

“You can make a living, but you’re not going to be buying a condo in Florida,” he said.

Technically, Mollo is the president of Brown County Abstract Co., a title he’s held since the 1990s.

“But I never put titles after it,” he said.

“This is mom and pop stuff.”

A rewarding part of his career has been helping people figure out problems.

“And if you don’t have the answer, you have contacts, you know who to call. As long as you give the right people the right information, you can usually come up with an answer,” he said.

‘Working together’

Mollo said that one of the major lessons he learned in his work is to never judge a book by its cover.

Mollo remembers meeting Andy Rogers, whom he described as a “maverick.”

The day that they met, Rogers came into the Brown County Abstract office, wearing a Robin Hood type felt hat and suspenders, Mollo said.

Mollo asked his father-in-law, “Who is that character?”

“That character owns half of Nashville,” he replied.

In his line of work, what has made the biggest difference is the people, Mollo said.

“You don’t do this stuff because it’s rewarding,” he said.

“Poring through files on the history of a property, no. It’s because of the relationships. That’s what it’s about.”

A great deal of those relationships have been made at the County Office Building.

The county offices and Brown County Abstract, Mollo said, are one and the same.

“They could have keys to my office for whatever they need and vice versa,” he said.

In the past, Brown County Abstract would receive documents every morning from recorder’s office and make copies, then put them in appropriate files. Then they switched to computer filing.

The work, Mollo said, is narrow and specific.

“We have to all work together in this little county or you can’t do anything. We are just really a mom and pop little operation, but we can do that because there are enough people that trust us.”

Through the years, Brown County Abstract has had anywhere from 10 to 13 employees.

Entering into the technological age came efficiency in the office, keeping a staff of just three — Steve, Jo Branham and Liz Mobley, who are sisters.

Mobley has worked at Brown County Abstract since 2000. She would come into the County Office Building every day to retain necessary information, and also speak with friends she’d made at the offices.

Branham, worked at Brown County Abstract for 30 years. She has enjoyed the research of properties in her work at the office.

Mollo, Branham said, was more like a friend to her than a boss. She said she’ll miss the people.

Mollo said he’ll miss not going down to the county offices and seeing the people.

“You go to the assessor, the auditor and recorder, you double check the taxes. You saw all these people every day.”

The relationships built between the offices was evident at Mollo’s retirement party, which was held on Dec. 9 in the Salmon Room at the County Office Building.

Brown County Auditor Julia Reeves said that personally she’s worked with Mollo for 20 years and four as auditor.

“He’s very professional,” Reeves said.

“He always knows what he’s doing, he’s funny. … He’s a good man all around.”

She said she’ll miss his accuracy and having him stop by the county offices.

In retirement, Reeves said she hopes he gets to do everything he wants.

Brown County Assessor Mari Miller said that she first started working with Mollo in 2003, when she became county auditor.

Over the years, she’s gotten to know him.

He was first “all business,” she said, but became more of a “wiseacre” the more they got to know each other.

Remembering everyone’s names and property acreage, she said he’s walking history.

“I hope he catches lots of fish, drinks the occasional bourbon and enjoys family time,” she said.

Brown County Recorder Mary Smith said that the local government and real estate community will feel the pain of Brown County Abstract closing.

“Steve is just a genuine guy,” Smith said.

“He always makes sure whatever work is going through his office is done correctly and when mistakes happen, he makes sure they are fixed.”

Smith said she has seen Mollo pay fees or taxes that were missed on a closing with his own personal money because he wanted to make sure everything was taken care of the way he promised it to a customer.

“I will keep the fond memories of funny conversations with Steve over the years,” Smith said.

“I was in my early 20’s when I started in county government and Steve has been a trustworthy friend and a career mentor over the last 20 years. Jo and Liz have also become friends over the years and I will miss our conversations.”

In the 40 years he’s been in Brown County, 30 of those dedicated at Brown County Abstract, Mollo has seen the community landscape change.

With the entrance of word processing in the early 1990s, followed by cell phones and internet, Mollo said one could see things changing with businesses and overall life.

“We’ve still avoided becoming little Gatlinburg though,” he said.

“We have our own personality.”

One way things are not like they used to be is in the daily operations and the rise of technology, Mollo said.

“It’s been 35 years, everything changes. My father-in-law said if you do anything for more than 25 years, you’ll start saying, ‘It’s not like it’s used to be.’ He was exactly right,” he said.

This was especially evident during the pandemic, he said, pointing out to him that it was time to retire.

The housing market in the pandemic allowed for “great” revenue for Brown County Abstract, but a large reason the business had kept going for years is because the people they were working with, Mollo said.

The pandemic forced the business to take that element out of the equation, he said, passing papers out of the window and keeping their masks on.

He’s now seeing a rise in E-filing documents.

“I could be doing this from home, (but) this is something I don’t want to do from home,” he said.

In the early 1990s Heather became circuit court judge in Brown County, then went on to Bartholomew County juvenile court, where she retired a few Augusts ago, Mollo said.

She has since been “senior judging,” filling in Hendricks County until Gov. Eric Holcomb (R) appointed a replacement.

Now that they’re both retired, Mollo said that they may travel – “If Heather has her way,” he said.

What else is next for Mollo in retirement?

“I haven’t been able to think that far ahead,” he said last week.

Though, he added, it will be nice to have a weekend at home and not feel guilty about it.

Even if they vacation and travel in retirement, Mollo said that they’ll always come back.

“We raised our families here. We didn’t move, we didn’t want to move,” he said.

“A lot of snowbirds take off and go to Florida. But we’ll always come back, we’ll take vacations. We still want to come back here.”

He’s also looking forward to having free time to dedicate to the community again.

He was on the Brown County Community Foundation board of directors when the nonprofit began in 1991, he’s on the Mother’s Cupboard Food Pantry board and he was a part of the group that built the weight room at Brown County High School.

“That’s the reward. It’s not work, but the community foundation, Mother’s Cupboard, the weight room and activities through the school when our kids were there.

“When you’re in the community, if you want to be involved, you find you’re involved in everything.”

At his retirement party, Mollo reiterated his gratitude for the people in the community, saying that’s what has made the difference in his career.

“I wouldn’t be here without the people,” he said.