Wheelock Whitney, Jr.

Wheelock "Whee" Whitney, Jr. is a Minneapolis businessman, educator, sports team executive and owner, philanthropist ^[1] and politician who attended Phillips Andover and Yale University with George H.W. Bush.^[2] He and Bush were both members of Delta Kappa Epsilon at Yale. He was a successful investment banker from 1957 to 1972 when he left the industry to teach at the Carlson School of Business.

He 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,^[3] losing to Rudy Perpich.

Wheelock Whitney, Jr. married Irene Hixon on August 21, 1948. They provided aid to Reverend Vernon Johnson, who pioneered the method of using an intervention to confront alcoholics and substance abusers so as to get them professional help for their addictions. They created the Johnson Institute after Reverend Johnson had helped Irene Whitney through an intervention. Irene Whitney died of lung cancer in 1986. In 1990 he married Penny Lewis, a professional horse trainer, from whom he was divorced in 1994. In 2005, he married Kathleen A. Blatz, the former Chief Justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court.

Sports executive

Wheelock Whitney, Jr. helped obtain the Minnesota Twins Major League Baseball franchise for the state. He served on the team's Board of Directors from 1961 to 1985. Further, he was a part of the successful effort to obtain a National Hockey League franchise for the city of Bloomington, Minnesota. The team, the Minnesota North Stars, were founded in 1967 and played at the Met Center which Whitney helped get built. He was also a part-owner and president of the Minnesota Vikings football team for a number of years.^[4]

Wheelock Whitney, Jr. has been involved with the sport of Thoroughbred horse racing for many years. His best known horse was Quicken Tree, a California runner in the 1960s whose wins included the Santa Anita Handicap and the Jockey Club Gold Cup.^[5]

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