WAVERLY, Iowa — A former Hormel Foods executive is donating $2 million to a northeast Iowa college to endow a faculty position in the school’s religion and philosophy department.

The Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier reports Mike McCoy and his wife, Marge, of Ellison Bay, Wis., made the donation to Wartburg College in Waverly. Mike McCoy was the executive vice president and chief financial officer for Hormel, retiring in 2006.

The college announced the donation Wednesday, saying it was the largest non-estate gift by an individual donor or couple that Wartburg has ever received.

The gift will fund the Mike and Marge McCoy Family Distinguished Chair in Lutheran Heritage and Mission.

Officials say the money will help the college deepen its roots in the Lutheran spiritual and intellectual tradition.

The McCoys are parents of two Wartburg graduates.

The college of about 1,750 students is affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.