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 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 commencement, he worked at a quantity of main pump firms as an utility engineer and regional manager.
In 1969, Harris was one of many 4 engineers who based Hydro, Inc. with the mission of providing engineering services to the pump aftermarket business. From the beginning, Harris believed in bettering the reliability and efficiency of pumps and inspiring innovation. He was later appointed as president of Hydro.
Hydro started with a single store in Chicago; beneath Harris’s management and imaginative and prescient Hydro turned the most important independent aftermarket pump firm on the planet. Today, Hydro stands proud with 15 service centres in 9 international locations.
Harris was instrumental in defining the culture of Hydro: unbiased, engineering- and innovation-focused, and devoted to the shopper. He helped develop applications for customer education in pump processes, believing that the information of the way to safely preserve and function pumps was one thing that ought to be shared with everybody. He spearheaded many innovations in the best way pumps are serviced, using state-of-the-art expertise to re-engineer pumps for maximum efficiency.
Harris is survived by his wife 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 within the trade. Their management was characterised by a special commitment to their employees, who they handled like family. They inspired all service centres to honour Hydro’s employees with month-to-month worker celebrations and an annual Employee Appreciation Week. As he once stated: “Hydro turned the company it did due to the dedication of our people – machinists, mechanics, engineers, administrative and gross sales workers – who all share a pivotal role in serving our customers.”
pressure gauge ไท วัสดุ of care and loyalty nurtured by the Harrises inspired admiration and esteem in all of Hydro’s employees, a lot of whom have labored at Hydro for greater than 20 years. Harris was also well-respected by his friends throughout the pump industry. In 2014, he was elected as president of the Hydraulic Institute, the most important association of pump business producers in North America. In 2015, Europump awarded him its President’s Silver Award in recognition of his priceless contributions to the pump industry.
Bob Jennings, Corporate Trainer, pays a personal tribute:
“I started with HydroAire in 1976 and shortly learned that George Harris was the consummate protagonist who all the time expected greater than people had been prepared to offer. As an worker, I realized shortly that half-hearted measures had been unacceptable and an angle of ‘good enough” was never tolerated. To suppose that he took a rag-tag group of 5 street-wise salesmen and turned the company into a world organization with 19 amenities worldwide is an incredible accomplishment. It took hard work, long hours, a “never say never” mindset, and teamwork to grow the company as he did. He needed to be the best, he wished the company to be the best, and he wished every of his employees to be their finest.
George was a gifted particular person who had the uncanny ability to “see over the horizon” and will glimpse the future wants of the business lengthy earlier than others had digested last week’s modifications.
There was also a facet of George that most individuals by no means had the chance to see: As tenacious a businessman as he was, he was equally beneficiant and caring to these within the “Hydro Family.” George and Rita always handled their employees as “adopted sons and daughters” they usually personally bore the burden of knowing that their business decisions not only have an result on the corporate however the well-being and safety of their employees and their families as properly.
George might be deeply missed, however his legacy will stay on. He employed what he thought of the “best of breed” and those that shared his vision for the lengthy run, and the company is saturated with like-minded people who will proceed to develop the corporate properly into the future.”
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