Tributes paid to Hydro, Inc.’s president and founder.
George F. Harris, president and founder of Hydro, Inc.
Hydro, Inc. has introduced the passing of its president and founder, George F. Harris, on December 20th, 2021.
Born in Chicago in 1941, Harris got here from humble beginnings, working as a waiter and a taxi driver. He attended the University of Illinois at Champaign and graduated with a Bachelor of Science diploma in Engineering. After graduation, he worked at a quantity of main pump companies as an application engineer and regional supervisor.
In 1969, Harris was one of many 4 engineers who founded Hydro, Inc. with the mission of offering engineering providers to the pump aftermarket trade. From the beginning, Harris believed in bettering the reliability and performance of pumps and encouraging innovation. He was later appointed as president of Hydro.
Hydro began with a single shop in Chicago; underneath Harris’s leadership and imaginative and prescient Hydro grew to become the most important unbiased aftermarket pump firm in the world. Today, Hydro stands proud with 15 service centres in 9 countries.
Harris was instrumental in defining the culture of Hydro: unbiased, engineering- and innovation-focused, and devoted to the client. He helped develop programs for customer education in pump processes, believing that the data of the way to safely keep and operate pumps was one thing that should be shared with everybody. He spearheaded many innovations in the greatest way pumps are serviced, using state-of-the-art expertise to re-engineer pumps for max efficiency.
Harris is survived by his wife of 56 years, Rita, who he met while at the University of Illinois. She later grew to become vice president of Hydro, and they labored side-by-side to make the company preeminent in the business. Their management was characterised by a particular dedication to their workers, who they treated like household. They encouraged all service centres to honour Hydro’s workers with monthly employee celebrations and an annual Employee Appreciation Week. As he as quickly as mentioned: “Hydro turned the corporate it did because of the dedication of our individuals – machinists, mechanics, engineers, administrative and gross sales workers – who all share a pivotal function in serving our customers.”
The culture of care and loyalty nurtured by the Harrises impressed admiration and esteem in all of Hydro’s employees, a lot of whom have labored at Hydro for more than 20 years. Harris was additionally well-respected by his friends within the pump business. In 2014, he was elected as president of the Hydraulic Institute, the most important affiliation of pump trade producers in North America. In 2015, Europump awarded him its President’s Silver Award in recognition of his valuable contributions to the pump trade.
Bob Jennings, Corporate Trainer, pays a personal tribute:
“I began with HydroAire in 1976 and quickly discovered that George Harris was the consummate protagonist who all the time expected more than people have been willing to supply. As an employee, I discovered shortly that half-hearted measures had been unacceptable and an angle of ‘good enough” was by no means tolerated. To suppose that เกจวัดแรงดันสูญญากาศ took a rag-tag group of 5 street-wise salesmen and turned the company into a worldwide group with 19 facilities worldwide is an incredible accomplishment. It took onerous work, lengthy hours, a “never say never” mindset, and teamwork to grow the corporate as he did. He wanted to be the best, he needed the corporate to be the most effective, and he wanted each of his staff to be their greatest.
George was a gifted individual who had the uncanny capability to “see over the horizon” and could glimpse the longer term wants of the business long before others had digested last week’s modifications.
There was additionally a side of George that most people by no means had the chance to see: As tenacious a businessman as he was, he was equally generous and caring to these in the “Hydro Family.” George and Rita always treated their workers as “adopted sons and daughters” they usually personally bore the burden of knowing that their business selections not only have an result on the company but the well-being and security of their employees and their households as nicely.
George might be deeply missed, however his legacy will reside on. He hired what he considered the “best of breed” and those who shared his vision for the future, and the corporate is saturated with like-minded individuals who will continue to grow the corporate well into the future.”
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