RAPID CITY, S.D. (AP) – South Dakota School of Mines & Technology has received its largest gift in the university’s history. The donation of $3.6 million from 1969 graduate Willard Goodman and his wife, Billie Kay Goodman, is directed to the Department of Civil Engineering and doubles its annual operating budget.

Willard Goodman, who died in 2013, was appreciative of the support he received as a student from the head of the civil engineering department. The Willards owned Plant and Flanged Equipment Company in Minneapolis. South Dakota School of Mines President Jim Rankin said it was pleasing to know alumni are helping future scientists and engineers.