From his home in Harrisville, all the way to Asia, Europe and beyond, George Andrushko collected butterflies for nearly half a century.
“My sweetheart loved butterflies and he loved collecting them,” said Elaine Andrushko.“He took the kids butterfly collecting, made the nets and taught them not to squish their wings.”
George’s collection numbered over 4,000 butterflies, which he mostly pinned to frames and placed in sealed envelopes.
“He loved nature,” George’s son, Mathew, shared. “He was always taking us into the mountains. And he would not forget the nets. We would all have nets.”
Along with catching butterflies in the wild, George also traded and purchased to add to his collection.
“I just remember my dad would communicate with people all over the world,” said Julia Andrushko, George’s daughter. “I don't know how he did it, because it was before the internet. Somehow he would order eggs and get these little eggs, and he would raise them downstairs [in the basement].”
Julia recalls her childhood filled with anticipation waiting for the cocoons to open.
“He just saw the beauty in all of them and where they lived and how some of them, their wings would blend in nature.”
But time, like wings, moves fast and George passed away on October 8, 2006.
“He was a good man,” Elaine said. “He took care of his family. He took care of me.”
After George's death, Elaine admits that her husband’s collection went out of sight for a while.
“I just really didn't know who to get in contact with,” she explained. “I'm not really handy with the cellphone. I still have a landline.”
That changed when she made an unlikely connection in 2023 with a member of her church who was also interested in butterflies.
“I met Elaine at a church service auction, and I had a butterfly that I had put into a shadow box frame that I was auctioning off,” said Jena Andrus. “She came up to me and said, Was this yours?
The connection grew from there. Elaine invited Jena to see her husband’s vast collection of butterflies.
“I went over and saw it, and my jaw dropped,” Jena recalled.
Elaine gave George's entire collection to Jena, who just so happens to be getting her masters in entomology, the scientific study of insects.
“I needed a project, it gave me even more fuel to help Elaine, and because she had just expressed to me, I just want something done with these.
Jena is organizing and collecting data on all the butterflies in George’s entire collection so it can head to the Natural History Museum of Utah for scientific study.
According to Jena, butterflies play a vital role in our environment as indicators of ecosystem health. Their presence, population changes, even DNA and the pollen they carry, can provide valuable data for conservation efforts.
Studying butterflies helps scientists track environmental changes, assess restoration needs, such as after wildfires, and support legislation and funding for habitat protection.
“I definitely feel like a steward,” Jena shared. “I want to do the best that I can for George and his family and respect the love and passion that he had and share the greatest love story we're told.
The collection will no longer be hidden and Elaine is happy it's staying that way.
“It makes me feel very grateful,” she said. “It’s like our heavenly stepped in there and helped me with this collection that had been sitting there for years, with not anything or anyone interested in it at all.
"I knew that they would enjoy it if they could just see what he has and what he’s done.”
