Charles J. Scanlon was the fifth president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, serving from January 4, 1962, to April 15, 1970.

Scanlon began his career with the Bank at the age of 17 as office boy. He studied evenings at Northwestern and also took courses at the American Institute of Banking. In 1935 he moved into the Auditing Department as a full-time clerk and two years later transferred into the Bank Examination Division. In 1938 he became an assistant examiner and in 1955 was elected chief examiner. Scanlon became first vice president on September 1, 1959, and on January 4, 1962, became president.

In addition to his work at the Chicago Fed, Scanlon was an instructor of loans and credits at the Inter-Agency Bank Examination School in Washington and served as a consultant to the government of Liberia.

After 36 years of service at the Chicago Fed, Scanlon took early retirement and accepted a position as vice president at General Motors Corporation in New York.