The 1954 Harvard Yearbook states that as the founder and inaugural president of the Harvard New Jazz Society, Tom Wilson brought added dimensions to the college’s music scene. “The New Jazz Society added a touch of ultraviolet. Their music may have been considered radical by some…[b]ut the violet hue of their purple-passioned polkas raised a hue and cry in the Society itself.” Wilson kept the agenda “colorful” throughout the academic year, bringing in speakers and arranging concerts.