Sandra Kay Hutt Elinson

Sande Hutt Elinson, a fiercely original spirit with an artist's eye and a sharp sense of humor, died in hospice care in New York City on July 20, 2025. She was 77. A devoted wife and mother, night owl, and natural storyteller, she brought irreverence and warmth to every chapter of her life.

Born in Ogden, Utah, in 1947, Sande was adopted at birth by Dale and Dorothy Hutt, a childless couple who went on to have five more children. Dale, who ran Caterpillar tractor dealerships, moved the family several times over the next dozen years as he attained better positions with Caterpillar-living in Salt Lake City and Logan, Utah; Phoenix, Arizona; Salina and Wichita, Kansas; and finally settling in Boise, Idaho.

Despite changing schools five times before junior high, Sande excelled in school. At Boise's Borah High School, she was both a standout on the debate team and a member of the elite drill team. She was ultimately voted "Miss Nonconformist," a title she earned by floating easily between social circles while remaining unapologetically herself.

Sande studied English and Latin at the University of Idaho, where she became culture editor for the school newspaper, The Argonaut, and joined the Delta Gamma sorority. During summers, she worked at Roosevelt Lodge in Yellowstone National Park. In the summer before her senior year, she was invited by a friend from high school to help organize a lecture program at Columbia University in New York. While there, she met Columbia student Mitch Elinson. She returned to Idaho to complete her degree-graduating from Boise State College-and married Mitch the following year, in Boise, at Christ Chapel.

They settled in Washington Heights, where their children, Morgan (born 1974) and Blake (born 1976), were born. In 1977, the family moved to the newly opened development on Roosevelt Island, where Sande quickly became a pillar of the community. She co-founded a babysitting co-op, served as president of the PTA, vice president of the Roosevelt Island Residents Association, and raised funds for the Rompers Roost Day Nursery. A founding member of the Roosevelt Island Artists Association, she exhibited her work at local art fairs and created a series of note cards featuring neighborhood landmarks; the cards were sold to benefit the Roosevelt Island Historical Society. She was also a long-time member of the Roosevelt Island Garden Club, serving as its Secretary for several seasons.

Sande began a two-decade career in nonprofit development once her children were in school. She held executive assistant positions at Prevent Blindness and the American Museum of Natural History, and went on to serve as director of development at the Lighthouse Guild, the American Numismatic Society, Girls Inc., the Neurological Institute at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center, Snug Harbor Cultural Center, the Girl Scouts of Southern Idaho, the China Institute in America, Studio in a School, and the National Council of Churches. She was known for raising funds and building momentum for some of New York's most vital cultural and health organizations.

In 2009, she became a grandmother to twins Mace and Keira, an experience that brought her deep joy and renewed purpose. She remained closely involved in their lives and endlessly proud of the people they were becoming.

In their later years, Sande and Mitch traveled across the American West through Utah, Idaho, Oregon, and Arizona; sailed past glaciers in Alaska; watched sunrises in Hawaii; and visited Spain, France, Italy, Greece, Ukraine, Cuba, and China. They explored the world the same way they moved through life-open-hearted and side by side.

Sande was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 1999. After successful treatment, the cancer returned in 2011 and again in 2020. She received care at the Dubin Breast Center at Mount Sinai Hospital for the last four years and entered hospice in 2024.

She is survived by her husband of 55 years, Mitchell Elinson; her son Morgan and his wife Hoa Thai; her daughter Blake Decker and her husband Joseph; her grandchildren Mace and Keira Elinson; her sister Janice Currin and her husband Robert; her brothers Ron (and wife Judy Stadler) and Terry (and wife Susan Hollingsworth); and her chosen sister, Terri Peterson, her dearest friend since the age of thirteen. She was predeceased by her parents, her brother Don, and her sister Judy Ann.

Donations in her memory may be made to the Dubin Breast Center at Mount Sinai Hospital.