Karl Theodore Francis Bitter was an Austrian-born United States sculptor best known for his architectural sculpture, memorials and residential work. He was the sculptor at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893 and the director at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York in 1901. Bitter’s extraordinary organizational skills led him to be named head of the sculpture programs at both the 1904 St. Louis Exposition in St. Louis, Missouri, where Lee Lawrie trained with his guidance, and the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition held in San Francisco, California. In 1906/1907, he presided the National Sculpture Society.

He also built the Depew Fountain (Click Here...), Indianapolis, Indiana (completed by Alexander Sterling Calder), 1915 and worked on sculptures for the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Richard Morris Hunt architect, NYC, 1901.