Frank Vittor so loved the history of his adopted city and country that he sculpted it, cast it in bronze and even carved it in granite.

An Italian immigrant, he was known as the sculptor of presidents because he created likenesses of Calvin Coolidge, Woodrow Wilson, Theodore Roosevelt, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln. A handsome, engaging artist, he even elicited a laugh from the taciturn Coolidge.

Mr. Vittor also memorialized Honus Wagner, whose statue stands outside PNC Park, and Guglielmo Marconi, whose bust is in the lobby of KDKA.

But his best-known work probably is the towering Christopher Columbus in Schenley Park. During a ceremony at 10 a.m. today, Italian-Americans will honor the prolific artist by unveiling a state historical marker citing his accomplishments.

Frank Vittor

The marker is near the Columbus statue, a long-standing symbol of pride for one of the city's largest ethnic groups. The Sons of Columbus paid for the statue, then donated it to the city in 1958. Mr. Vittor died at age 80 in 1968.

"It represented all of the Italian-American community. We had somebody sculpt it who was an Italian-American," said Anthony DiNardo, of Upper St. Clair, president of the national Sons of Columbus.

Wherever he walked, Mr. Vittor could see his work -- 30 public fountains, numerous war memorials and works on Downtown buildings, along the Boulevard of the Allies, the Liberty Bridge and the Westinghouse Bridge.

Marilyn Evert, co-author of "Discovering Pittsburgh's Sculpture" with photographer Vernon Gay, wrote that Mr. Vittor "had a preference for the heroic and the colossal."

A broad-chested, husky man who smoked up to eight cigars a day, Mr. Vittor won many design competitions. His family, of course, is pleased about the recognition.

"As far as I'm concerned, he had a super, super talent," said Carla Scatena, one of the sculptor's daughters. She lives in Baden and plans to attend the marker's unveiling with her son, Joseph.

"He was really enamored of American history. That's why he did so many beautiful memorials. He admired Lincoln especially," Mrs. Scatena said.

Many immigrants to the United States furnished labor for booming steel mills and coal mines. But Mr. Vittor was born into a family of artists in Mazzate, Como, a suburb of Milan, and began sculpting at the age of 9 when he made a wood carving in bas-relief of the poet Dante.

He was educated at the Brera Academy in Milan, then studied with Auguste Rodin in Paris. He came to America in 1906 as a protege of Stanford White, the famed New York architect.

But by the time Mr. Vittor arrived in New York, Stanford White had been shot dead by the jealous Harry K. Thaw in Madison Square Garden.

Despite his lack of money and knowledge of English, Mr. Vittor set up a New York studio. He later left Manhattan at the urging of the noted astronomer Dr. John A. Brashear, who saw five of Mr. Vittor's bronzes at a Pittsburgh gallery. Love played its part, too -- in 1917 he met and married a Pittsburgh woman named Adda Mae Humphreys and eventually set up a studio at 2565 Fifth Ave. in Oakland.

For two years during the 1930s, he won the grand prize at Italy's Fiera Esposizione al Littoriale with his busts of Theodore Roosevelt and Pittsburgh merchant Henry Kaufmann.

Vernon Gay, co-author of "Discovering Pittsburgh Sculpture," believes Mr. Vittor's sculpture of Dr. Brashear, which is at the Allegheny Observatory, shows the greatest influence by Rodin. It also was Mr. Vittor's favorite piece.

As for Mrs. Scatena, she misses the large bust of Abraham Lincoln that sat in her father's studio for years. Her father hoped that the bust would be bronzed and placed at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., but the plan fell through.

"We did sell it because it needed to be taken care of and in a proper place. My goal is to buy it back. I actually miss him like a member of the family. That statue was absolutely wonderful."