The Reverend Jasper "Jack" Green Pennington of Ypsilanti, Michigan, died on March 16, 2025. He has been cremated and at his request there will be no funeral or memorial service. Interment will take place at a future date at Woodlawn Cemetery in Clio, Michigan, where his parents and extended family are buried.

Fr. Pennington was born on 20 March 1939, one of five children of Walter Columbus Pennington and Hazel Sutton Moshier Pennington.  He was born under the aegis of Clio, the Greek muse of history and spent his academic and parish life in pursuit of family, church and local history.

Fr. Pennington began piano lessons when he was ten years old and those merged into organ study so that from the age of eighteen and throughout most of his life, he served as organist and choirmaster in Episcopal churches in Michigan, Canada, Tennessee, and New York- often while in graduate school, seminary, and/or working full time. The music and liturgy of the Church was of great interest and research.

He graduated from Western Michigan University in 1968 with a Master's in Library Science before attending seminary at the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee While there, he aided other relatives in the creation of what became the Pennington Research Association, Inc. whose family documents, records, archives and publications are housed at Earlham College, Indiana.

After graduating from seminary in 1973, he was ordained to the deaconate the same year and the priesthood the following year.

From 1973 to 1981 he was an Associate Professor and Director of the Library at St. Bernard's Seminary, Rochester, New York.  While at Rochester he founded and directed the Bishop Fulton J. Sheen Library and Archives which is housed in the Roman Catholic Diocesan Archives there. After the closing of St. Bernard's in 1981, Fr. Pennington spent two years as Bishop's Chaplain and parish priest in the Diocese of Maine before becoming rector of St. Luke's Church in Ypsilanti where he spent the next eighteen years.

While at St. Luke's, Fr. Pennington oversaw the renewal and preservation of its historic buildings including the redecorating of the 1857 Church, the renovation of the Gardam Chapel and working with Michigan artists Jane and Gawaine Dart the creation of fourteen Stations of the Cross, a large mural of St. Luke located in the Garth and the making of an Altar Piece for the Chapel. Fr. Pennington was much involved in community life, encouraging the parish participation in the annual Ypsilanti Heritage Festival and founding an organization to enhance the artistic treasures of the Churches and Chapels of the Ypsilanti Historic District.  He was the first chairman of the Ypsilanti Ethics Commission and a long time trustee of Highland Cemetery.  For many years he served as trustee of the Washtenaw County Historic District Commission.

His interest in the historical records of parishes and dioceses led him to be historiographer of both the Michigan and Rochester dioceses.  For five years he was Dean of the Huron Valley Convocation during which he encouraged the establishment of a hospital chaplaincy program staffed by volunteers from each of the regional parishes. He was chaplain of the Diocesan Altar Guild for several years and a one-time trustee of the Cathedral Church of St. Paul in Detroit.

Fr. Pennington was an avid reader and supporter of libraries and had a huge personal library of English and American Church history, Michigan history, church arts, fine press books and bookplates.  He made donations to several libraries from these collections.  His collection of books authored by Penningtons was unique with materials dating from 1681 to contemporary.

Family members remaining include his wife of 62 years, Carole Cecile Lynch Pennington and their children: Amy Pennington-Boyce (Todd) and their two children, D'Arcy and Ian; Thomas Pennington, and Sarah Pennington; siblings: Thomas (Joyce) Pennington, Kay (Alan) Springgay, and James (Jo) Pennington; and numerous nieces and nephews. He was predeceased by his parents and older sister, Betty Kingsbury. Memorial gifts may be sent to St. Luke's Episcopal Church, 120 North Huron Street, Ypsilanti, Michigan 48197.