Peter C. Cook is well-known as a philanthropist in Grand Rapids. Numerous buildings bear the Cook namesake, including the Cook Carillon Tower and the Cook-DeWitt Center at Grand Valley State University, the Peter C. Cook Administration Building at Davenport University, and the Peter and Pat Cook Academic Hall at Grand Rapids Community College. Each time one of these buildings opens, a short biography of Cook is shared with those at the dedication ceremony and almost invariably these biographies tout Cook's 66 years of marriage, his education at South High School and Davenport, and his business success in the automobile industry. However, missing from both these official biographies and the public consciousness, is Peter Cook's role both as a financer of the right through his Cook Charitable Foundation and political contributions, as well as his active involvement with economic and religious right organizations ranging from the Council for National Policy to the West Michigan-based Gospel Communications International.

By virtue of both his philanthropy and business success, Cook has enjoyed considerable influence in West Michigan and sits on a variety of boards including the Blodgett-Butterworth Foundation, the Grand Valley University Foundation, and the Van Andel Institute. In addition to running his own automotive supply companies from 1954 to 2000, Cook also served on other corporate boards including Comerica Bank and Michigan National Bank. With the money made through his Mazda Great Lakes company, Cook also formed the Cook Charitable Foundation which helped Cook's reputation grow as a wealthy patron for a variety of "civic-minded" projects in the Grand Rapids area including the Grand Rapids Public Museum, the Grandville Avenue Academy for the Arts, and the Heart of the West Michigan United Way. He has also used his money to fund the primarily Republican Party candidates and political action committees (PACs), contributing a total of $425,950 from 1990 to 2006. At one point Cook served as the finance committee chair for the Kent County Republican Party.

While none of the aforementioned activities situate Cook the far right of the political spectrum, it is worth noting that Cook funded far right candidates within the Republican Party including Oliver North and Jesse Helms. More importantly, Cook has used his foundation as a vehicle to advance a rightwing political ideology that mixes support for United States empire with support for a variety of religious right organizers. Cook was included in Russ Bellant's seminal 1996 work The Religious Right in Michigan Politics with Bellant explaining that Cook's foundation has funded a variety of far right entities in Michigan including the anti-public education TEACH Michigan group, the evangelical organization Gospel Communications International, the economic right Mackinac Center for Public Policy, and the Acton Institute, a Grand Rapids-based think-tank that fuses religion and free-market thought in defense of rightwing economic policies. In a review of grants awarded by the Cook Charitable Foundation between 2002 and 2004, Media Mouse documented Cook's support for a variety of religious right entities. In 2004, Cook made a modest $500 contribution to Focus on the Family, a national "family values" organization that has been particularly active in recent years opposing gay marriage. Cook gave the Michigan affiliate of Focus on the Family, the Michigan Family Forum $20,000 in 2002. The Pregnancy Resource Center, a Christian-focused anti-abortion organization received $10,000 as did the evangelical prison ministry Prison Fellowship Ministries run by ex-Watergate felon Chuck Colson. The Denver-based Promise Keepers movement also received $3,000 from Cook in 2002.

Cook's contributions are small compared to the major foundations funding the religious right in this area, but they are still an important part of his legacy. Moreover, these contributions have not existed in a vacuum, but must be seen both within the context of Cook's political contributions as well as the fact that Cook himself has been involved with some of the entities that he funds. In the past Cook has served on the boards of two major economic right think tanks in Michigan, the Acton Institute and the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. He has also held positions on the boards of entities promoting conservative forms of Christianity, including Grand Rapids-based publisher Zondervan and Gospel Communications International. Cook's involvement has also extended beyond West Michigan, with Cook currently holding a position on the board of the Media Research Center a rightwing media monitoring organization claiming to counter liberal bias in the media. Cook is on the board of the Jamestown Foundation a Washington DC-based think-tank generally supportive of United States empire and the Defense Orientation Conference Association a think-tank supporting a stronger United States military. However, it is Cook's involvement with the Council for National Policy, a secretive network that brings together prominent rightwing activists and funders for the purpose of coordinating strategy, that most firmly places Cook within the context of the nationwide far right. Cook is believed to be a current member of the organization and served on its board of governors in 1996 and 1998.