Early life and college Scanlan was born on December 1, 1931, in
Cedarhurst, New York, to Margaret O'Keefe Scanlan and Vincent Scanlan. When he was three, his parents separated. His father moved to Mexico, while his mother remarried and moved to New York City. Scanlan remained with his mother in New York, growing up in a predominantly lower-class Irish families; because of this, he grew to despise the rich.
Return to the seminary, back to Steubenville After five years at the college, Scanlan accepted the position of
rector at St. Francis Seminary, where he had begun his seminary formation. Despite these changes, the college struggled to stay open. The first year after Scanlan instituted the changes, the incoming freshman class was the smallest that the college had ever seen. Scanlan led the covenant community group Servants of Christ the King, until he was requested to step down in 1991 at the behest of
Bishop Albert Ottenweller, following concerns that the group had been influenced by elements in the
Word of God (community) and
Sword of the Spirit organizations, where leadership was said to be "excessively controlling members lives, including their marital relations and finances".
Retirement and death After 26 years as president of the university, Scanlan stepped down in 2000, but was the school's
chancellor until his retirement in 2011. == Sex abuse scandals ==