Kent Wilson, who sang with the Kroks in 1961, 1962, and 1963, passed away in Vienna, Austria on April 10.

We believe that Kent was the first Black member of the Krokodiloes. He was a pioneer at Harvard in many respects, and he speaks about his experience in this video excerpt:https://thelastnegroesatharvard.com/meet-kent-wilson/.

Bill Danner and Rick Pepin shared that Kent attended Harvard Business School and was a professor in the Business Department at Webster Vienna Private University. One of Kent’s close friends noted that Kent had several grandchildren and was still actively singing.

A couple of seismic Admission events took place at Harvard in the late 1950s. On the football field, after Harvard’s humiliating defeat by Yale 54-0 in 1957, the word went out to Admissions to get some “ringer” football players for the Class of 1962 – from football centric places like Oklahoma and Western Pennsylvania. The result: Harvard shared the Ivy League Champion with Columbia in 1961.

Kent Wilson was part of the other seismic Admission event at the time: the admission of 18 Negros (as African-Americans and Blacks were then called) as part of the over 1,000 members admitted into the Class of 1963. In the prior history of Harvard, no more that 1 to 3 Negros had ever been admitted at the same time.

Kent’s personal story is told in the book “The Last Negros at Harvard: The Class of 1963 and the 18 Young Men Who Changed Harvard Forever”. It was Affirmative Action before that term started to be used in 1961. So too the Krokodiloes, with Kent joining in 1961 – as, I believe, the first Black in the Kroks.

As a side note, perhaps linked to the seismic football event, one of the other 18 Negros admitted was Hobie Armstrong – an outstanding halfback.

Another side note: 1 of the 18 was an undercover CIA agent, admitted to keep an eye on the other 17 – it was only learned years later.

Kent was a member of the Kroks for 3 years. After graduation he traveled throughout Eastern Europe, spent 2 years in the Peace Corp in Ecuador then took a course at a University of Vienna, where he met his wife. They and 2 of their eventual 3 children returned to Harvard in 1971, where he got his MBA from the Business School in 1973. Returning to Austria, he had a distinguished career at IBM. He finished his career as a Professor in the Business School at Webster Vienna Private University. He was a favorite among the students there and he also continued his love of singing as part of numerous choral groups.

In addition to Kent, the Kroks had additional connection to the 18 Negroes: two of them were roommates of Kroks.

-From Bill Danner ‘62, delivered at the 80th Reunion Memorial Service, March 29, 2026.