Kenneth Wheeler

Sir Kenneth Henry Wheeler (7 September 1912 – 10 May 1996) was an Australian politician. He was born in Mernda to farmer William Henry Wheeler and Alma Nellie Bodycoat. He worked on his father's farm from the age of thirteen, and then was a retail dairyman at Coburg in 1934. On 24 January 1934 he married Hazel Jean Collins, with whom he had two children. He amalgamated with Croft Dairies in 1950 to form Metropolitan Dairies, of which he became manager in 1959. A Liberal Party member, he served on Coburg City Council from 1950 to 1959 and was mayor from 1955 to 1956. In 1958 he was elected to the Victorian Legislative Assembly as the member for Essendon. He was elected Speaker of the Victorian Legislative Assembly in 1973, and was knighted in 1976. Wheeler retired from politics in 1979, and died in 1996.