| A title career 60 years in the making
Abstracts & Titles Inc. recently celebrated 60 years in business, and its leader has worked there since day one.
 Susan Engelke, president of Abstracts, has been there as the firm grew from one office (in Edwardsville, Ill.,) to three offices (two in Edwardsville and one in Collinsville, Ill.,) that write title insurance, do escrow closings, and handle construction disbursement for homes that are being built.
She supervises 30 employees, including one of her daughters, Lisa Jo Engelke, who is Abstracts’ vice president and Susan’s eventual successor. Susan and Lisa Jo work together in the administrative office in Edwardsville, which is about 25 miles from St. Louis.
While she’s worked in every department at Abstracts & Titles, Susan says she enjoys closings the most because, “I like explaining to people what they need to do and what title insurance is to them, how this will benefit them. … It’s just, I guess, the people aspect of it.”
Susan and Lisa Jo recently spoke with The Title Report about Susan’s 60-year career at Abstracts, where she started in the typing department, ascended to co-ownership in the early 1990s, and then exclusive ownership in 2021.
How it started
After graduating from high school in June of 1965, Susan began working at Abstracts & Titles Inc. two months later. To the best of her recollection, she learned about the job through a newspaper ad. She got in on the ground floor: Abstracts hadn’t even opened for business when she walked in on her first day. The firm was founded and opened by Frank Flanagan and John Crook, two attorneys who also had their own law practice.
“Both of them were excellent teachers, and were extremely patient with anyone that had questions,” Susan says.
She began working in the typing department where she spent part of the day typing for Abstracts & Title, and the rest of it working for Flanagan and Crook’s law practice. Susan advanced into doing legal work, which included dealing with the codification of city ordinances.
“I loved doing that stuff. … I love the legal aspect of the title insurance industry,” Susan says.
She also typed judgments and worked in order entry, accounting, closings, construction disbursements and examining.
Susan spent about 25 years working as Crook’s administrative assistant. During the first 15 of those years, she moved from department to department to learn different tasks. She received an on-the-job education about abstracts and title insurance from Crook, who she described as “a fantastic teacher.”
“He had a sense of humor, and he loved telling you the in-depth portion about any question,” Susan says. “With customers … he would explain to them in detail what they needed to do, why what they had done so far was wrong, why they needed an attorney. … If you listen to him, you just learn so much.”
Susan remembers Crook explaining an abstract to her. She says she expected him to spend about five minutes to explain the document.
“He sat down for about two, two and a half hours and took an abstract and went through it meticulously and explained … how you started with a raw piece of ground,” Susan recalls. “In the end you subdivided it, and how this one person owned lot one in this subdivision ... it was just … amazing.”
Susan says she enjoys reviewing the information on the abstract.
“It was just very intricate and very, very much in detail,” she says. “That kind of stuff is what makes you just really love what you’re doing, because it’s a mystery. You find the answer to the mystery.”
Susan takes leadership reins
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“We wouldn’t be able to do the volume we do now if we didn’t have technology.”
Susan Engelke
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In the late 1980s, Flanagan sold his portion of the business to Crook. A short time later, Roland Bauer purchased Abstracts & Titles from Crook. Not long after that, Bauer approached Susan with a business opportunity.
“He says, ‘I'm going to sell it. I want you to buy it,’” Susan shares. “I said, ‘Yeah, right.’ He says, ‘you run this company. You just don’t realize it.’”
It took some persuading, but Susan agreed to assume the leadership role in a co-ownership capacity with another abstractor, Linda Steele. Noting her mother is “not a risk taker,” Lisa Jo says it remains a mystery to her why Susan agreed to become the owner.
Susan recalls Bauer telling her “you know how to do most things. And he says, ‘whatever, you don't know how to do, you hire someone to do it. … You need to try it … you’ll do fine.’”
She praises Bauer for believing in her ability to lead the company when she had doubts. When she raised concerns about failing, she remembers Bauer telling her, “You're not going to fail, but he says, ‘if you fail, I'll be here to help you’… So, it worked out.”
After becoming co-owner of Abstracts & Titles, Susan discovered “there wasn’t a whole lot of difference” between working at Abstracts as a leader rather than an employee. Before she became co-owner, Susan and Bauer would meet on a monthly basis to discuss the business. Once she became co-owner, Susan says, “that step was eliminated, and I basically was running the company, and didn’t know it.”
Susan and Steele ran the firm together from 1993 to 2021. Susan then bought out Steele and became the exclusive owner in 2021.
Susan praised the mentors she’s had in the business.
“I've been very fortunate to have the teachers in this industry that I have had because they have been very, very great to work with,” Susan says.
During the past 60 years, Susan says she took partial leave a couple times to handle personal obligations, but notes there was never a year that she did not work at Abstracts.
A customer service business
Susan begins her workday handing out the abstracting work that was opened the day before, reconciling the checking accounts, and handling items such as construction disbursements. She then spends much of her day on the phone answering questions.
“Customer service is what I do most of my day,” Susan said.
The office operated on Main Street in Edwardsville from 1965 to 1979 and in 1979, the then-owners constructed the 8,000-square-foot home office on Second Street in Edwardsville where the business still operates from today.
The firm also has satellite offices in Collinsville and another site in Edwardsville.
Lisa Jo says the home office in Edwardsville is “the title plant. This is the administration building. We do all the paperwork, all the commitments, all the policies. The two satellite offices, those are the ones that see the customers… they get the stuff signed, they get the transaction disbursed and finalized. We’re the title research here.”
The home office is right across the street from the Madison County Courthouse.
“Madison County is basically the heart of our operation,” Lisa Jo says.
Susan adds, “Madison County has grown greatly in the past 60 years and it’s really a very up and coming county.”
The company has 30 employees, with all but three working in a full-time capacity.
The closing offices have been successful due to the high level of experience of the closers. Lisa Jo estimates most of the full-time staff has been with the company for 20-plus years.
“Most of the closers have been with us for a long time,” Susan says.
A family affair
Even before she started working at Abstracts & Titles, Lisa Jo remembers accompanying her mom to the office on weekends throughout her childhood.
“She used to roller skate down in the basement,” Susan recalls.
“Roller skate, color, watch TV,” Lisa Jo adds. “Play my little Game Boy … I grew up in this building.”
 As a child going to school, Lisa Jo says she learned the phone number of Abstracts & Titles before she knew her home phone number. Although her mother always maintained a busy schedule, Lisa Jo says her mom attended every game when she was in cheerleading and played volleyball, and helped at school parties.
“She never missed out when it counted,” Lisa Jo shares. “…She gave me some very good people in my life to watch me when she was running Abstracts, and when I needed her to be there, she was there.”
Lisa Jo started working at Abstracts at the age of 15 in 2001 and worked there every summer until she graduated from college in 2008.
With a laugh, Lisa Jo recalls she spent her first summer reorganizing Susan’s address book.
After graduating from high school, Lisa Jo says she wanted to start working full time at Abstracts & Titles, but her mother insisted she get a college education. Once she earned her degree, Lisa Jo started working at Abstracts as Susan’s administrative assistant before eventually moving into the role of vice president.
How the business has changed
While noting title insurance itself has remained “kind of the same” over time, Susan acknowledges certain legal components have changed, but the biggest change has been in technology. Advances in technology have equipped the company with the ability to process more transactions.
“We wouldn’t be able to do the volume we do now if we didn’t have technology,” Susan says.
Lisa Jo adds, “I think … the policies and procedures really don't change. The steps are the same. It's just technology sometimes makes it easier.”
While technological progress has made the everyday work easier, Susan and Lisa Jo say they have to constantly be on the lookout for instances of fraud.
“It's gone from… that’s never going to happen to it's probably happening every five seconds,” Lisa Jo says.
Susan enjoys watching baseball, reading, going to beach
When she isn’t working at Abstracts & Titles, Susan enjoys attending St. Louis Cardinals games with Lisa Jo (they have season tickets), reading romance novels, going to the beach, shopping, and antiquing. She’s also active with her church and served on the local school board for 15 years.
“There’s always stuff to do if you want to do it,” Susan says.
Lisa Jo says she’s a fan of musical theater and adds her mom goes with her to those performances.
In 2020, Susan was inducted into the Greater Gateway Association of Realtors’ Hall of Fame for her service to the industry.
“I was very appreciative of the honor,” she says.
Work continues, torch will be passed to Lisa Jo
There is not a timeline on when Lisa Jo will officially take over the business, but Susan observes, “technically, she runs it.”
However, Lisa Jo says she still needs her mom’s help with the work.
“There's only so many hours every day, and… staying on the phone and talking to customers does take up a lot of time,” Lisa Jo says.
Lisa Jo says her mother knows she can step away from the business whenever she decides she’s ready.
“She only has to be here as long as she enjoys it, and when she stops enjoying it, then she shouldn’t come in anymore,” Lisa Jo says.
Susan shared the same perspective when a friend recently asked her about her future plans.
“I said, ‘When I don't like going into work, I'll probably quit,’” Susan says. “(I’m) 78, I can’t do this forever. I said, ‘but as long as I enjoy it and I do it, I'm going to keep doing it.’”
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