SARATOGA SPRINGS — It’s rare for Brian Nealon to not recognize the name of someone leaving money to The Wesley Community.

People who make bequests to the senior services organization are often former board members or former residents at Wesley Health Care Center or the independent living apartments.

“It’s almost unprecedented that it’s not even someone who you had fostered a relationship with,” said Nealon, chief executive officer of The Wesley Community.

But before they donated almost $1 million to the organization, John and Elizabeth Gailey were unknown to Nealon.

Their only connection to the organization seems to be that they had lived for four decades on Loughberry Road in Saratoga Springs near the Rev. Ralph Barron Jr., the founding Wesley CEO, and his wife, Eva.

Eva Barron, who now lives at Embury Apartments, was surprised when told the couple left $916,709 to Wesley. She remembers the couple as quiet, although Elizabeth Gailey used to ask Barron how Wesley was taking care of Ralph Barron after he suffered a stroke in 1990.

“She would call to check on his condition,” Barron said. Ralph Barron died in 1997.

Gailey, whose husband died three years before she passed away in 2005, was apparently storing away that information about The Wesley Community’s services.

She left almost the entire estate to the organization. It’s the largest donation Wesley has ever received, Nealon said.

Elizabeth Gailey was a housewife and John worked for General Electric, Barron said. They had no children and kept their property well-maintained with a lot of flowers, she recalled.

Other than that, Barron didn’t know much about the couple.

“I had no idea of the enormity of their gift; that was the real surprise,” she said. “You think of people working hard all their lives with no family to pass on their assets.”

Nealon said now that money will be set aside to grow interest as the John and Elizabeth Gailey Endowment Fund. The earnings will aid services including at the health care center, outpatient therapies, short-term rehabilitation, assisted and independent living and adult day programs.

The CEO learned about the gift soon after Elizabeth Gailey died in 2005, but didn’t know how much it was worth until this year. “We obviously were elated when we got the information,” Nealon said.

Tim Mabee, president of the board of directors of The Wesley Foundation, the fundraising arm of The Wesley Community, said “When you receive any unexpected gift, you are grateful, but this is overwhelming.”

Nealon spoke with the couple’s nephew, who lives locally, about the organization’s plan for the endowment. He declined to name the nephew, who said the couple would have approved.

“The family was certainly surprised by how Mrs. Gailey’s will was laid out, as were we,” Nealon said. The couple had only extended family.

Before the Gaileys’ gift, the largest donation Wesley received was from someone who donated a little more than $500,000 in several installments.