CONCORD, N.H. – The new SPCA animal shelter in Concord, N.H., will be named after a longtime supporter of New England animal shelters who has pledged more than $1 million to the organization.

Lyman Pope of Jackson has been visiting and donating to the Concord shelter and 37 others in the region for more than a decade.

Heather Faria, executive director of the organization, told the Concord Monitor the donations are “transformational” for the SPCA, which currently is run out of a converted chicken coop in Penacook.

The Concord shelter would be the third named in honor of Pope. Shelters in Orleans, Vt., and Rockland, Maine, have been named for him.

The 85-year-old Pope, who ran a real estate business, established a foundation in 2000 dedicated to helping animal shelters.

“They badly needed the money to get their shelter built and they had raised quite a bit, but they needed some more to get over the top and start building,” Pope said of the Concord shelter.

He has donated $525,000 toward construction of the shelter, which nearly completes the SPCA’s more than $2 million capital campaign for the new building. Pope’s gift, announced Wednesday, includes an additional $500,000 pledge that the organization will receive after his death.

 

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