In 1984 Robert Wick, a sculptor and former art department faculty member at Kent State University, and his brother, Walter Wick established what is today known as the Wick Poetry Center in memory of their sons Stan (1962-1980) and Tom (1956-1973).

The Wick Poetry Center hosts an annual reading series, provides scholarships to Kent State University for High School and Undergraduate student poets and offers outreach programs to area schools. With the Kent State University Press, the Center also supports publication of chapbooks by Ohio writers and a first book of poems by the winner of the Stan and Tom Wick Poetry Prize. Endowed in memory of Stan and Tom Wick, the Wick Poetry Center promotes opportunities for emerging and established poets and poetry audiences locally, regionally and nationally.

"Out of painful beginnings, my brother Walter and I have found great meaning in...the success of Wick Poetry and the future of young poets."
–Robert Wick