Adolph Gustav Wolter

(Sept. 7, 1903- Oct. 15, 1980). Adolph Gustav Wolter was born in Reutlingen, Germany, and attended the Academy of Fine Arts in Stuttgart before immigrating to Minneapolis in 1922. He moved to Indianapolis in 1933 to carve the sculptured figure reliefs for the Indiana State Library building. He graduated from Herron School of Art and taught sculpture at the Indianapolis Art League.

His local achievements include a bust of Crispus Attucks (1943) for Crispus Attucks High School, a fountain statue in University Park (1973), and the Louis Chevrolet memorial at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (1975). He carved the exterior stone and interior religious figures that grace Second Presbyterian Church (1958), Broadway United Methodist Church, Christ Church Cathedral, and Meridian Street Methodist Church, and figures at Washington Park Cemetery East. He designed and produced the CASPER award for the Community Service Council.

Wolter’s Indiana exterior designs also adorn buildings at Purdue, DePauw, and Ball State Universities. One significant memorial he designed is The Four Freedoms, located in the White Chapel Cemetery in Troy, Michigan. The sculpture is based on a 1941 speech by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in which he proposes four fundamental freedoms: freedom of speech and expression, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear.  

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