Wheelock Whitney (businessman)
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Wheelock "Whit" Whitney (St. Cloud, Minnesota, August 28, 1894 [1] - Wayzata, Minnesota, March 23, 1957 [2]) was a Republican businessman and philanthropist and the scion of a powerful Minnesota family. He graduated from Phillips Andover Academy in 1913 [3].
His oldest son is John Kimball "Kim" Whitney, a Minnesota philanthropist, and a long-time board member of the Boy Scouts of America[4]
His second son, Wheelock "Whee" Whitney, Jr. is 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[5]. He was part-owner and president of the Minnesota Vikings football] team for a number of years.
His grandsons include Wheelock Whitney III, an art historian and philanthropist; Benson Whitney, the current (as of 2006) U.S. ambassador to Norway; and Connecticut Green Party politician Charles Pillsbury of Doonesbury fame.
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