1908 – 1972 (July 9)
Henry F. Scanlan was born in Shenandoah, Pennsylvania, on February 1908, the youngest of nine children of Thomas Scanlan and Mary Watson. He grew up in Germantown, Philadelphia, and graduated from LaSalle College in 1931. After college Henry entered the Trappist Monastery at Gethsemane, Kentucky, as a postulant but discovered that his vocation was not to the Trappist way of life. He applied to the Augustinians, was accepted as a novice at Good Counsel Novitiate, New Hamburg, New York, and professed simple vows on September 10, 1934. He studied philosophy at Villanova College and theology at Augustinian College, Washington, D.C. and was ordained to the priesthood on June 15, 1937, by Archbishop Michael Curley at the National Shrine, Washington, D.C.
After ordination Father was assigned to Villanova Preparatory, Ojai, CA, where he taught until becoming a military chaplain in 1944. He served in Greenland and on Mexico’s Baja California’s peninsula. He left the service in 1946 and he taught at Villanueva University, Havana, Cuba for six years.
From 1956 to 1968 Father Scanlan taught at Monsignor Bonner High School, Drexel Hill, PA. In 1968 he was appointed prior of the community at Malvern Preparatory School.
Father Scanlan died on Sunday, July, 9, 1972 after a long illness. He was buried at Saint Mary’s Hall Cemetery, Villanova, until the graves of the friars were re-located to Calvary Cemetery, West Conshohocken, PA.
