A Southern California man with an intensive gun assortment of principally vintage firearms spanning centuries needed certainly one of his passions to profit one other.
Paul O’Donnell died Sept. 13 after struggling a coronary heart assault at age 78. In his will, the Ontario man ordered the weapons be offered at public sale with proceeds being donated to West End Shelter for Animals in Ontario.
The greater than $600,000 donation got here as a welcome shock when the shelter realized of the bequest earlier this month.
“It has made us have the brightest smiles,” mentioned Helen Rockett, of West End Animal Shelter. “We’re at all times in want of cash, and help for our canine, their meals, and their kennels.
It is the practically 70-year-old group’s largest donation by far.
The shelter plans to use the windfall for a building mission that stalled through the COVID-19 pandemic. The new wing will develop capability on the no-kill shelter and improve operations.
“It’s going to make me cry,” mentioned Rockett. “He’s gone, however what an ideal bequest. It’s made the most important distinction in having the constructing constructed quicker and ahead of we anticipated.”
O’Donnell’s three senior cats have been taken into the shelter after his demise. Staff members are fostering the cats at their houses.
Family members informed the Daily Bulletin that O’Donnell started assortment weapons when he was 13. The mentioned he served within the navy and was stationed at Fort Lewis in Washington in an administrative place earlier than instructing junior and senior excessive historical past courses.
The fastidiously curated assortment was saved in a steel-and-concrete yard bunker, the Daily Bulletin reported. Ontario police collected the weapons following O’Donnell’s demise.
More than 1,000 weapons have been purchased by the public sale home. The checklist consists of weapons from the Civil War, a late 1700s musket, and firearms from the World War I and World War II eras.