[3] He graduated from Northeast Catholic High School in Philadelphia and attended Temple University.
His father, Joseph A. Scanlon, was a member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives for the Philadelphia County district from 1935 to 1952.
[4] He and his wife, Agnes M. (Ruddock) Scanlon, were the parents of three children, the grandparents of eight grandchildren and the great-grandparents of six great-grandchildren.
[6] Scanlon died in office in 1970[4] at Temple University Hospital while undergoing treatment for diabetes.
He is interred at the Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in Cheltenham Township, Pennsylvania.