Olon F. Wiggins
(August 31, 1911 - February 4, 1984)
The first signs of Denver fandom appeared in 1932, when letters from Olon [Fletcher] Wiggins started appearing in letter columns of some of the prozines. In 1940, Wiggins and Lew Martin caused much amazement when they hopped a freight train and rode boxcars for thirty hours from Denver to Chicago to get to the 1940 Worldcon. They succeeded in winning the right to host the 1941 Worldcon, which became the first Denvention.
OFW, a tall (6'5"), thin man, had discovered sf when he found a copy of Amazing while moving into a new house, and fandom found him when Maurice Z. Ingher, the editor of Science Fiction Digest noted his letter-writing activity and sent him an issue.
After the Chicon, Wiggins and several other fans formed the Colorado Fantasy Society. By the late 40s he was still attending the CFS, but was no longer very active and soon gafiated becoming completely inactive by the late 40s.
His last known appearance in fandom was at a panel at Denvention Two in 1981.
He was a charter member and served as President of FAPA and was awarded the First Fandom Hall of Fame posthumously in 2016.
For an early short biography, see Who's Who in Fandom 1940, page 14.
- Galaxy [late 30s] (for FAPA)
- The Science Fiction Fan [1936-41]
| Person | ????—1984 |
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