RICHLAND, Wash. – A couple who donated $17.5 million to Washington State University have had an engineering school named after them.

The Pullman-based school will be named the Gene and Linda Voiland School of Chemical Engineering and Bioengineering.

Gene Voiland grew up in Richland, where his father was a chemist at the national laboratory then run by General Electric. He got a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering at WSU in 1969.

Voiland, now a California resident with his wife, Linda, went on to become an engineer and CEO in the energy industry, running subsidiaries of Royal Dutch Shell and ExxonMobil before retiring in 2007.

The university says it is its largest one-time commitment by an individual donor.