Tributes paid to Hydro, Inc.’s president and founder.
George F. Harris, president and founding father of Hydro, Inc.
Hydro, Inc. has introduced the passing of its president and founder, George F. Harris, on December twentieth, 2021.
Born in Chicago in 1941, Harris came 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 degree in Engineering. After graduation, he labored at several main pump corporations as an software engineer and regional supervisor.
In 1969, Harris was one of the 4 engineers who founded Hydro, Inc. with the mission of providing engineering companies to the pump aftermarket industry. From the beginning, Harris believed in improving the reliability and efficiency of pumps and encouraging innovation. He was later appointed as president of Hydro.
Hydro began with a single shop in Chicago; under Harris’s management and vision Hydro turned the biggest impartial aftermarket pump company on the earth. 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 shopper. He helped develop packages for buyer training in pump processes, believing that the data of tips on how to safely maintain and operate pumps was one thing that should be shared with everybody. He spearheaded many inventions in the finest way pumps are serviced, utilizing state-of-the-art technology to re-engineer pumps for max effectivity.
Harris is survived by his spouse of fifty six years, Rita, who he met whereas on the University of Illinois. She later turned vice president of Hydro, and so they worked side-by-side to make the corporate preeminent in the trade. Their leadership was characterised by a special dedication to their workers, who they handled like family. They inspired all service centres to honour Hydro’s workers with monthly employee celebrations and an annual Employee Appreciation Week. As he once mentioned: “Hydro grew to become the company it did because of the commitment of our individuals – machinists, mechanics, engineers, administrative and gross sales workers – who all share a pivotal position in serving our clients.”
The tradition of care and loyalty nurtured by the Harrises inspired admiration and esteem in all of Hydro’s workers, a lot of whom have labored at Hydro for more than 20 years. Harris was also well-respected by his peers within the pump business. In 2014, he was elected as president of the Hydraulic Institute, the biggest association of pump business manufacturers in North America. In 2015, Europump awarded him its President’s Silver Award in recognition of his useful contributions to the pump business.
Bob Jennings, Corporate Trainer, pays a private tribute:
“I began with HydroAire in 1976 and shortly learned that George Harris was the consummate protagonist who all the time anticipated more than individuals have been willing to offer. As เพรสเชอร์เกจลม , I learned rapidly that half-hearted measures had been unacceptable and an angle of ‘good enough” was never tolerated. To assume that he took a rag-tag group of 5 street-wise salesmen and turned the company into a worldwide organization with 19 services worldwide is a tremendous accomplishment. It took onerous work, long hours, a “never say never” mindset, and teamwork to develop the company as he did. He needed to be one of the best, he wanted the company to be the most effective, and he wanted every of his staff to be their finest.
George was a gifted particular person who had the uncanny capacity to “see over the horizon” and will glimpse the longer term wants of the industry long earlier than others had digested final week’s adjustments.
There was additionally a facet of George that most people never had the chance to see: As tenacious a businessman as he was, he was equally beneficiant and caring to those within the “Hydro Family.” George and Rita at all times handled their workers as “adopted sons and daughters” and they personally bore the burden of understanding that their enterprise choices not solely have an result on the company however the well-being and security of their workers and their households as well.
George shall be deeply missed, however his legacy will reside on. He hired what he thought-about the “best of breed” and those who shared his imaginative and prescient for the lengthy run, and the corporate is saturated with like-minded people who will continue to grow the company well into the future.”
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