Early Life
McKinnon was born in Blackheath, London. His father was Major-General Walter McKinnon, CB CBE, a New Zealand Chief of the General Staff, and once Chairman of New Zealand Broadcasting. McKinnon's brothers include the twins John McKinnon, the current New Zealand Secretary of Defence and a former Ambassador to China, and Malcolm McKinnon, an editor and academic, and Ian McKinnon, Pro-Chancellor of Victoria University of Wellington and the current Deputy Mayor of Wellington City. The McKinnon brothers are great-great-grandsons of John Plimmer, known as the father of Wellington.
McKinnon was educated at Nelson College and in Washington, D.C. before eventually undertaking study at Lincoln Agricultural College, New Zealand. After leaving university, he became a farm manager, and later a farm management consultant. In 1974, he became a real estate agent. In his spare time, he also worked as a rehabilitation tutor in prisons.
Read more about this topic: Don McKinnon
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