Michael Francis Pennock authored several best-selling textbooks for Catholic high schools, including, Encountering Jesus in the New Testament, Your Life in Christ, Our Catholic Faith, and Catholic Social Teaching, besides many other school textbooks and trade books authored over the past thirty-five years. He retired as a high school theology teacher, the majority of his career spent at St. Ignatius in Cleveland.

Pennock received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Loyola University, Chicago; a Master of Arts in religious education from St. John's College, Cleveland; and a Doctorate in secondary education from the University of Akron.