The Cook Carillon Tower was built in 1994, shortly after Julianne Vanden Wyngaard came to Grand Valley as the Department of Music chair. President Lubbers' vision for the campus, included the addition of a carillon. He went to Julianne and asked if she would be willing to learn how to play and become the university carillonneur.

The tower is named after major donors and longtime Grand Valley supporters Peter and Pat Cook, who died in 2010 and 2008 respectively. The Cook Carillon Tower contains 48 bronze bells created in the Netherlands, and the size and weight of each bell determine the individual tones. The bells range from 7.5 inches to more than 51 inches and weigh from 14 to nearly 3,000 pounds.

Julianne Vanden Wyngaard, retired university carillonneur at Grand Valley. She started in 1965 as a part-time piano accompanist and became a faculty member in 1967, bringing the number of music faculty to 3. When asked by President Lubbers to be the university carillonneur, it seemed like a logical transition from piano to carillon. Julianne spent several summer trips to the Netherlands along with her sabbatical to earn her performance diploma from Netherlands Carillon School in 2000.