Wheelock Whitney, Sr.

American businessman
The basics

Quick Facts

IntroAmerican businessman
PlacesUnited States of America
wasBusinessperson
Work fieldBusiness
Gender
Male
Birth28 August 1894
Death23 March 1957 (aged 62 years)
Star signVirgo
Politics:Republican Party
Family
Father:Albert Gideon Whitney
Children:Wheelock Whitney, Jr.
The details

Biography

Wheelock "Wheels" Whitney Sr. (August 28, 1894 in St. Cloud, Minnesota – March 23, 1957 in Wayzata, Minnesota) was a Republican businessman and scion of a powerful Minnesota family.

Early life and education

He graduated from Phillips Andover Academy in 1913.

Career

He was part-owner and president of the Minnesota Vikings football team for a number of years.

Family history and personal life

He married to Katherine Kimball in 1922. Their oldest son, Wheelock "Whee" Whitney Jr. was a Minneapolis philanthropist, who was the 1964 Republican nominee for U.S. Senate from Minnesota, losing to Eugene McCarthy, and he was the Republican nominee for governor of Minnesota in 1982. Their second son was John Kimball "Kim" Whitney, a Minnesota philanthropist, and a long-time board member of the Boy Scouts of America, who died November 8, 2010, aged 83.

Grandsons include Wheelock Whitney III, an art historian and philanthropist; Benson Whitney, the former United States Ambassador to Norway; and Connecticut Green Party politician Charles Pillsbury of Doonesbury fame.

Ancestry

He was the son of Albert Gideon Whitney (1859–1922) and Alice Wheelock (maiden; 1868–1954). By way of his mother, he was the 7th great grandchild of Ralph Wheelock (1600–1683).

The contents of this page are sourced from Wikipedia article on 14 Jun 2020. The contents are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license.