SCANLON, THOMAS J. (March 25, 1938-October 30, 2022) was a lawyer and community service leader. Born to Thomas J. Scanlon and Marie Grady, he was the second of three children.
Growing up on Cleveland’s West Side, he attended SAINT IGNATIUS HIGH SCHOOL and graduated in 1956. He received his undergraduate degree from JOHN CARROLL UNIVERSITY in 1959, followed by a law degree from CLEVELAND-MARSHALL LAW SCHOOL (now Cleveland State University College of Law ). Scanlon covered the cost of his law school tuition by working during the day as a delivery driver and then as a financial analyst for TREMCO, INC, while attending classes at night. In 1963 he was admitted to the bar with a law degree in hand.
For over a decade, Scanlon gained practical legal experience working with several local law firms. Then in 1979, he joined with Charles Donahue to co-found Donahue & Scanlon; the partnership specialized in real estate and commercial law. The firm changed its name to Collins & Scanlon in 1999 when Scanlon found a partner in Tim Collins. In 2020, he shifted to a part-time affiliation with Hawkins & Company LLC. Certified to practice law before the U.S. Supreme Court, U.S. Court of Customs, and U.S. Tax Court, he served on the Board of Bar Examiners of the State of Ohio; the Merit Selection Panel for the U.S. District Court; and the Northern Ohio U.S. District Court's Alternative Dispute Resolution Panel. He was honored by the Cleveland-Marshall Law Alumni Association in 2007.
Throughout his life, Scanlon celebrated his Irish heritage by frequently traveling to Ireland and hosting an annual St. Patrick’s Day party that was attended by some of Cleveland’s most influential citizens. He founded the Irish American Law Society of Cleveland and took on an active role in the Irish-American Charitable Foundation, the Mayo Society of Greater Cleveland, and the Ohio Rose Centre. As a longtime Board Member of the Irish American Archives Society, he promoted a sculpture of boxer JOHNNY KILBANE and a book commemorating the history of Cleveland’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade. For these contributions, he was awarded the Archives Society’s WALKS OF LIFE AWARD in 2004, selected to the Irish Legal 100 in 2009, inducted into the Cleveland International Hall of Fame in 2014, and named Grand Marshal of the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in 2020 (an honor delayed by the Covid pandemic until 2022).
Scanlon also devoted his efforts to numerous other organizations such as the West Side Ecumenical Center, Greater Cleveland Sports Commission, Gordon Square Arts District, Cleveland Pops Orchestra, Collaborative to End Human Trafficking, and Leukemia & Lymphoma Society of America, which he joined after losing grandson Christopher Miller to the disease.
Scanlon and his wife, the former Anita Marciante , enjoyed a fifty-nine-year marriage; they met when he was a law student, and she worked at the STERLING-LINDER department store. Together they had four daughters: Elizabeth Donnelly, Colleen Miller, Cynthia Scanlon, and Kimberly Klein . Thomas died in his home in WESTLAKE on October 30, 2022, at the age of 84. He is buried in ROCKY RIVER’S Lakewood Park Cemetery.
David Brennan