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.
He graduated from Phillips Andover Academy in 1913.
His son, Wheelock Jr., was part-owner and president of the Minnesota Vikings football team for a number of years.
He married Katherine Kimball in 1922.[1] 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.[2] Their second son was John Kimball "Kim" Whitney, a Minnesota philanthropist, and a long-time board member of the Boy Scouts of America,[3] who died on 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.
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).