The College of Engineering received a $1 million donation from a company with old connections to Iowa State University.

The Department of Civil and Construction Engineering received the endowment from Pitt-Des Moines, Inc., a company that specializes in structural steel.

The endowment will create a faculty position that will be used to teach and research structural steel, a strength of the Civil Engineering Department.

“The funds will make the department better,” said James Melsa, dean of the College of Engineering.

The endowment is a pool of funds in a bank account from which only the interest, not the principal, is used, Melsa said.

“The $1 million never gets used,” he said.

Pitt-Des Moines has had ties to Iowa State since its inception as the brainchild of ISU graduates William H. Jackson and Berkley N. Moss, who founded the company in 1892.

Pitt-Des Moines is a fabricator of steel used initially for water towers such as the Marston Tower, Melsa said. The company’s most notable project is the St. Louis Gateway Arch.

Barbara Boose of the ISU Foundation said the company has retained and strengthened its connections to Iowa State by employing other graduates of Iowa State.

“A large number of [Pitt-Des Moines] leaders early on were also Iowa State graduates, and [they] have hired over 100 Iowa State graduates over the years,” Boose said.

“Given the company’s tie to Iowa and Iowa State University’s top 10 largest civil and construction engineering departments in the nation made it a worthy investment for charitable dollars.

“It was also a great way to honor and recognize the company and have its name live on.”