Olympin Board of Directors

Olympin's Board of Directors consists of seven individuals:

Don Bigsby: President

After attending the Lake Placid 1980 Winter Olympics, Don’s passion for pin trading and amateur sports prompted him to create Olympin in June 1982. His objective was to create a forum for people to enjoy pin trading without having to attend the Games, and hence make new friends around the world. The Club has expanded to include members from over 30 nations. As a result of falling in love with the Olympics and pins, Don has been to 17 Olympiads. Don continues to write the quarterly newsletters over the past 37 years, and he still enjoys working for the Club. His collection consists of Athlete and Media pins, plus several other types of Olympic memorabilia. His greatest treasures are the memories from attending the Games and Pin Shows, and the wonderful friends he has made from many nations. Don had the honor of running in the 1996, 2002 and 2006 Olympic Torch Runs.

James H. “Jim” Goddard: Vice President

Jim has been an Olympin Club member since the mid-1980’s and has attended eight Olympic Games as an adult. Though he remembers the event only through photos, he was inspired to become an Olympic enthusiast by his first cousin, a decorated distance runner, who carried the torch into Modesto on its journey to the Squaw Valley Olympic Winter Games in 1960. He began collecting pins just before the LA ’84 Games, and now is an amateur historian of the Olympics as well as a collector, with a special interest in the Denver 1976 bid and the Squaw Valley torch relay. His story about Col. Hiram Tuttle, the only American to ever win a medal in Individual Dressage (1932), was published in ISOH’s Journal of Olympic History in November of 2017. Jim loves to trade pins in any venue and has been actively working to develop enthusiasm for trading among the staff and volunteers at the new USOP Museum in Colorado Springs through volunteering his time at their various events. He and his wife, Diane, live in Littleton, Colorado and are the main organizers of the 2022 Olympin Festival to be held Nov. 4-6.

Pam Litz: Secretary

Pam has attended fifteen Olympic Games so far with PyeongChang 2018 being the most recent. Her passion for the Olympics and for pin trading began during the Los Angeles 1984 Games when she was a teacher and served as an Olympic volunteer in public information. At the Opening Ceremonies after observing various small groups huddled together trading pins, she stood in a long line at a souvenir stand to buy a few, made her first trade with a Korean wrestling coach from Seoul, and has been totally hooked ever since. She loves the combination of traveling, reuniting with old friends, making new ones, and trading for more of those little treasures. During the past few Olympics, Pam has been involved as one of Coca-Cola’s “experts” at their pin trading centers and enjoys coaching newcomers to the hobby as they make their first trades. She is a long-time member of Olympin and helped to organize and coordinate the 2014 Olympin Collectors Club Show in Los Angeles.

Jon Becker: Treasurer

An Olympic memorabilia collector since the early 1970’s, Jon has collected just about everything Olympic over the years. It all started with a family vacation and a side trip to the Munich Olympics in 1972, and has encompassed many more Olympic Games, both Winter and Summer. Along the way, Jon’s business career gave him excuses to attend and broadcast coverage of the Olympics on radio. He has written articles on Olympic memorabilia for newspapers and magazines, authored or co-authored several books and monographs on various aspects of the subject, and is a member of the Executive Board of the non-profit, Lake Placid Olympic Museum. Jon has also appeared on television and radio programs over the years promoting the hobby. He has been asked to do appraisals on numerous individual items, as well as entire collections, and has given several appraisals for items on PBS Television’s Antiques Roadshow. Jon has also co-produced numerous Collectors’ Fairs since 1990. In an earlier life, he was a professional photographer, and has been able to create a library of thousands of photographs of all types of Olympic memorabilia.

Ingrid O'Neil: Board Member

Ingrid O'Neil's professional career began in an auction house for worldwide coins in Michigan, eventually becoming a dealer for worldwide historical medals from the Renaissance period on. One day she came across her first Olympic Games participation medal, and she has been hooked on the Olympics ever since. Beginning in 1990, Ingrid started to hold auctions for Olympic memorabilia, leading her to organize the very first auction held during an Olympics during the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games. She also organized a very successful exhibit as part of the Cultural Olympiad titled "100 Years of Olympic Memorabilia" in downtown Atlanta to which collectors from many countries sent their prized possessions for display. Other Olympic auctions followed in Lausanne at the IOC Museum, in Rio de Janeiro, Seoul,Korea, Colorado Springs, and Salt Lake City. In October 2022 she will hold her 92nd Olympic Memorabilia Auction. Online bidding began with Auction 80. Ingrid has attended many Olympic Games since Barcelona in 1992. She is considered one of the leading experts in many areas of Olympic memorabilia, and was recently asked to join the AICO Memorabilia Commission. Known by elite collectors worldwide, Ingrid is passionate about the hobby and is proud that she can contribute to its future growth by serving on the Olympin Board.

Ron Finnigan: Board Member

Residing in Toronto, Canada, where he works as an engineer for a large consulting engineering firm, Ron’s been a member of Olympin since 1987. While he does collect Olympic pins, he specializes in regional multisport games, such as Pan Am Games, Commonwealth Games, Central American & Caribbean Games, and Canada Games. His travels have taken him to 11 Olympics. The Pan Am Games in Lima, Peru,  in July 2019 were his 30th multisport games. In addition to pins, Ron is fascinated by graphic standards manuals and smaller paper items. Torches are not among the items in his collection, however he did have the honor of carrying the Olympic torch for Calgary in 1988. Over the years, he’s had the opportunity to attend three Olympin conventions and led the bid for Vancouver to successfully host the 2009 Olympin show. Ron also served as a bid volunteer with the Vancouver-Whistler 2010 Bid Corporation. Ron looks forward to helping out with growing the club, especially through continuing to contribute articles to the Olympin newsletter.

Karen Rosen: Board Member

Karen was a spectator at her first Olympic Games in Montreal in 1976, worked as a “spotter” for ABC during the track and field competition in Los Angeles in 1984 and has covered every Summer and Winter Games since 1992 as a journalist. Her father, Mel, was the 1992 U.S. Olympic men’s track and field coach. Karen was a coin collector growing up, progressing to Olympic pins and participation medals in the 1990s after Atlanta won the right to host the Games. She has written about sports and memorabilia for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, USA Today, the U.S. Olympic Committee and World Athletics. Karen was an Olympic torchbearer in 1996 and 2004. She also collects “Olympic stadium laps” from Athens (both stadiums and Olympia) to Tokyo. No doubt these are some of the slowest laps ever run on these tracks. Karen has written several books including Great Moments in Olympic Track and Field and Great Moments in Olympic Swimming and Diving.