Lloyd Bitzer

Lloyd Bitzer (born 1931, Austin, Texas, died October 13, 2016, Madison, Wisconsin) is an American rhetorician. He began his rhetoric studies at Edgewood College and in 1962, Lloyd Bitzer received his doctorate from the University of Iowa. In his early career, he held the title of Associate Professor of speech at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the early 1960s. He continued to be a professor at the institution in the school of Rhetoric, Politics, and Culture until 1994, when he retired. Today he is retired and considered an Emeritus of Wisconsin. Bitzer has been involved with many organizations including the National Communications Association and the National Development Project in Rhetoric. In 1968, Bitzer published his famous theory of situational rhetoric.

Bitzer's Rhetorical Situation is an extremely influential piece in the field of rhetoric. It made a lot of foreground for the field of study and it is still taught in college classrooms today. Marilyn Young has characterized him as "one of the most respected rhetoricians of the latter half of the twentieth century."