John Scanlon, 80
John Scanlon died peacefully in his sleep in his Acton home on October 30, 2025, after a long illness.
John was raised in Wakefield by Henry “Harry” and Mary Scanlon. Fiercely intelligent, he attended Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, where he studied electrical engineering and was a member of the U.S. Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps. After graduating, he was part of the pioneering software engineering team at the MIT Instrumentation Laboratory/Draper Laboratory that created the Apollo Guidance Computer, which in 1969 landed humans on the moon for the first time.
Deciding to move from engineering to marketing, John earned an MBA at Harvard Business School. He met Jean Glendinning on Cape Cod, and family lore has it that he almost missed their first date because he was winning a long Monopoly game. The two connected in the end, and his career in technology took their growing family around the world, from Stow to Paris to Harvard to Colorado Springs, Colorado, and finally to Acton in 1990. Early in his career, John spent 15 years at Data General, a microcomputer company at the heart of Tracy Kidder’s 1981 non-fiction book “The Soul of a New Machine.” John was a source for the book but asked Kidder to not use his name, concerned about his career. After Kidder received a National Book Award and a Pulitzer Prize for the book, John quipped that he regretted the decision.
John retired from Stratus Technologies in 2005, and he and Jean split their time between Acton and Bonita Springs, Florida. After Jean’s father, Bob, passed away in 2006, Jean’s mother, Donna, lived with them until her death in 2009; they had a close and loving relationship. John and Jean moved to Acton full time in 2020 to spend more time with grandchildren, and John became a regular at the Acton Free Public Library and the 99 Restaurant in West Acton.
John leaves his wife of 51 years, Jean; his daughter Lisa Mogolov (David Mogolov) and sons Robert (Elizabeth Scanlon) and Christopher (Karin Campbell); grandchildren August, Alexander, Margot, and Jack; brothers Thomas and David and sister Mary Ann; and many extended family members and friends. We will miss his sense of humor, wisdom, advice on lawn care, and love.
A private family service was held at Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, Acton.
In lieu of flowers, please make donations in John’s memory to the MIT Energy Initiative at energy.mit.edu/donate. Arrangements are entrusted to Dee Funeral Home & Cremation Service, Acton. For John’s tribute page, visit DeeFuneralHome.com.
