When the Butler Eagle published a story in February about Jerry Puff's mission to somehow return 77 pictures of Armco's World War II veterans to their families, he had no idea what to expect.

“When it hit the paper, the phone started ringing,” Puff said on Thursday. “It rang for three days straight.”

Puff's pictures were of Armco employees who were shipping out, had returned on leave or returned from their tour of duty during World War II.

Armco's staff photographer took the photos and carefully wrote the name of each soldier, sailor, WAVE OR WAC on the envelope.

Some were pictured alone and others with family members, who were also identified in some cases.

Puff was able to rehome two thirds of the photos to grateful, and sometimes tearful descendants of the men and women in the photos.

Pictures were mailed around the country at Puff's expense after far flung relatives saw the photos on the Butler Eagle website and Facebook page when the article broke.

“Some people were in tears when they called,” Puff said. “Some said 'I have no pictures of them.'”

He said because one out of every three employees who walked through the Armco gate in 1946 was in the military, there were originally about 15 boxes of photos and only one survived.

“It's sad when you realize how many boxes were destroyed,” Puff said.

He enjoyed talking with the people who called about their relatives' pictures.

“I got a story from each and every one of them,” Puff said.

He also recalled carrying the box of photos into the Eagle office on Diamond Street back in January, hoping the newspaper would print a photo or two.

Instead, a full article on the photos ran and management had all the photos uploaded onto the paper's website and Facebook page so everyone could easily access them.

Groups of photos continued to run in the Eagle for weeks after the article with information on how to reach Puff if a reader were to recognize a subject.

“I was more than pleased and very surprised that the Eagle took this and ran with it,” Puff said.

One of those to receive photos from Puff is Ron Frenchak of Butler Township, who saw the article in the Feb. 25 Sunday edition of the Eagle.

When his wife went to the website to look through the photos, two pictures of his aunt, WAC Julie Ference, popped up.

“When I got the pictures from Jerry, there were about eight or 10 of them and her sister, my Aunt Helen, was in the picture too,” Frenchak said. “She wasn't in the service, but she worked at Armco as well.”

Because Julie, her husband and one child have died, Frenchak sent all but two of the photos to his cousin in Pittsburgh who has done genealogy for the Ference side of the family.

He expects that cousin will send some of the photos to Helen Ference's daughter in Baltimore.

His cousin in Pittsburgh was beyond thrilled to receive the photos and add to the history of the Ferences.

“I was surprised pictures like that were still in existence,” Frenchak said.

He added that in addition to Julie and Helen, the Ference family had one brother killed in action in the Korean War and five others served in World War II.

“None are living,” Frenchak said.

As an acquaintance of Puff's, Frenchak is not surprised he took on a project most would have avoided.

“It's unbelievable that he put so much time, effort and money into it,” Frenchak said. “Jerry is a super person.”