Wheelock "Whee" Whitney Jr. (July 30, 1926 – May 20, 2016) was an American businessman, educator, sports team executive and owner, philanthropist, and politician.

Early life and education

Whitney attended Phillips Andover and Yale University with

George H. W. Bush George Herbert Walker BushSince around 2000, he has been usually called George H. W. Bush, Bush Senior, Bush 41 or Bush the Elder to distinguish him from his eldest son, George W. Bush, who served as the 43rd president from 2001 to 2009; pr ...

. He and Bush were both members of Delta Kappa Epsilon at Yale. Whitney was a successful investment banker from 1957 until 1972, when he left the industry to teach at the Carlson School of Business at the University of Minnesota. Whitney was the 1964 Republican nominee for U.S. Senate from Minnesota, losing to

Eugene McCarthy Eugene Joseph McCarthy (March 29, 1916December 10, 2005) was an American politician, writer, and academic from Minnesota. He served in the United States House of Representatives from 1949 to 1959 and the United States Senate from 1959 to 1971. ...

, and the Republican nominee for governor of Minnesota in 1982, losing to Rudy Perpich.

Sports executive

Whitney was involved with the Continental League, the third major baseball league, in 1959. He helped obtain the

Minnesota Twins The Minnesota Twins are an American professional baseball team based in Minneapolis. The Twins compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central Division. The team is named after the Twin Cities area w ...

Major League Baseball franchise for the state, and served on the team's

board of directors A board of directors (commonly referred simply as the board) is an executive committee that jointly supervises the activities of an organization, which can be either a for-profit or a nonprofit organization such as a business, nonprofit organiz ...

from 1961 to 1985. Whitney was also part of the successful effort to obtain a National Hockey League franchise for the city of

Bloomington, Minnesota Bloomington is a suburban city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, on the north bank of the Minnesota River, above its confluence with the Mississippi River, south of downtown Minneapolis. As of the 2020 census, the city's population was 89,987, ma ...

. The team, the Minnesota North Stars, was 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 Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

team for a number of years.

Personal life

Whitney married Irene Hixon on August 21, 1948. They provided aid to Vernon Johnson, who pioneered the method of using an intervention to confront alcoholics and

substance abuse Substance abuse, also known as drug abuse, is the use of a drug in amounts or by methods which are harmful to the individual or others. It is a form of substance-related disorder. Differing definitions of drug abuse are used in public health, ...

rs so as to get them professional help for their addictions. They created the Johnson Institute after Johnson helped Irene Whitney through an intervention. Irene Whitney died of lung cancer in 1986. In 1990 Whitney married Penny Lewis, a professional horse trainer, from whom he was divorced in 1994. In 2005, he married Chief Justice

Kathleen A. Blatz Kathleen Ann Blatz (born July 22, 1954) is a former Minnesota judge and legislator. She served as the interim chair of the Minnesota Sports Facilities Authority, which governs the U.S. Bank Stadium. Early life and education Blatz was born in Mi ...

, of the Minnesota Supreme Court. Whitney died on May 20, 2016.

Horse racing

Whitney was 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, Manhattan Handicap and the Jockey Club Gold Cup.PedigreeQuery website listing
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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Whitney, Wheelock Jr. 1926 births 2016 deaths American financiers American investment bankers American racehorse owners and breeders Minnesota Twins owners Minnesota Vikings owners Continental League contributors Major League Baseball executives National Football League team presidents University of Minnesota faculty Phillips Academy alumni Yale University alumni Minnesota Republicans Businesspeople from Portland, Maine Businesspeople from Minnesota Politicians from St. Cloud, Minnesota Whitney family Ralph Wheelock family 20th-century American businesspeople