Last week OPAL Community Land Trust accepted an unprecedented gift: a two-story, two-bedroom, one-bath house on a one-acre parcel of land in Eastsound, owned and generously donated by Philip Rife, who has lived on the property for 11 years.

Rife, 65, is moving to a retirement community on the mainland.

“I have been very blessed in life and I’d like to give something back,” he said. “I don’t need the assets from the sale of the property. I decided to donate the house and land so someone who has not been as fortunate as I have can have a home.”

An animal lover, Rife became familiar with OPAL on daily walks with his 13-year-old dog, Shelby, a black Labrador and Australian Shepherd mix. One of their favorite routes took them past Opal Commons, which was OPAL’s first neighborhood, completed in 1994. On walks into Eastsound, they watched as Wild Rose Meadow, OPAL’s newest neighborhood, was being built. “I like what OPAL is doing for future generations,” he explained.

“When Philip approached us, as you can imagine, we were overjoyed,” said Lisa Byers, OPAL’s executive director. “It’s not everyday that someone you’ve never met walks into your office and offers to give you his home.”

The Rife house will become OPAL’s seventh scattered-site dwelling, joining other individual properties in Olga and Eastsound. Plans are to renovate the house and have it ready for new qualified low- or moderate-income buyers by the summer. Like all community land trust properties, the land will remain in trust and be leased to the new homeowners, who will purchase the house with a mortgage. Future sales will adhere to a formula that guarantees the house will always remain affordable.

Rife, who is a writer with a degree in journalism from Penn State, moved to Orcas from Lancaster County, Pa., where he worked in corporate communications for a Fortune 500 company for 27 years. During his 11 years on Orcas, he has written and self-published eight books about unsolved mysteries, sharing information he has collected over 50 years, as well as new information from recent research. He is currently working on a book of puzzles for older adults to help them keep their minds active.

“I’ve enjoyed the island lifestyle,” Rife explained. “I want to give the house to people who will appreciate it, and I want to see it go to someone who can use it.”