Alexandria, Virginia — Friends and colleagues of Michael T. Scanlon, Jr., are mourning the unexpected loss of the former Self Storage Association president and CEO last week at the age of 76.

“Mike Scanlon’s passing leaves a tremendous void for so many of us who came to enjoy and appreciate this indelible, charismatic leader,” said current President & CEO Tim Dietz.

“Mike never did anything halfway, whether it was working within Washington politics throughout the 1970s or his impressive run as a trade association executive in the years that followed," Dietz added. "Much of the team that Mike assembled at the SSA from 2004 to 2015 remains with the organization today. We are forever grateful for his extraordinary contributions to the organization and to each of us personally.”

Scanlon joined the SSA at the outset of a remarkable period of growth for the industry. He embraced broad participation within the Association, including the integral engagement of the largest and public self storage companies, and he established vital elements such as an association magazine, advocacy on behalf of the self storage sector, the SSA Foundation, the vendor sponsorship program, and management of state self storage associations.

“The SSA’s current, critical role within the self storage community can be traced directly to Mike’s leadership,” said Dietz, who succeeded Scanlon in 2015.

Scanlon was brought to Washington in 1971 by U.S. Senator Robert Taft, Jr., who represented his beloved home state of Ohio. He went on to join the staffs of Sen. Bob Dole and President Gerald Ford, before moving his career to nonprofit trade associations, including the Petroleum Marketers Association of America (PMAA), the Petroleum Marketing Education Foundation (PMEF) and the American Bar Association (ABA). He also worked within the telecommunications industry and had ownership roles in minor league baseball.

Following his retirement from the SSA, Scanlon was the founding executive of the Self Storage Institute and served as chair of the Hilton Head (South Carolina) Planning Commission. Scanlon was a 2020 inductee into the Self Storage Hall of Fame. A proud alumnus of Ohio’s St. Ignatius High School (1965) and John Carroll University (1969), Scanlon was a lifelong fan of all Cleveland sports teams. He is survived by his wife, Paula Scanlon, of Hilton Head; his brother, Brian; four nieces and nephews; and a grandnephew.