Tributes paid to Hydro, Inc.’s president and founder.
George F. Harris, president and founding father of Hydro, Inc.
Hydro, Inc. has announced 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 degree in Engineering. After เกจ์ลมsumo , he labored at several major pump corporations as an application engineer and regional manager.
In 1969, Harris was one of the four engineers who based Hydro, Inc. with the mission of offering engineering companies to the pump aftermarket industry. From the beginning, Harris believed in bettering the reliability and efficiency of pumps and encouraging innovation. He was later appointed as president of Hydro.
Hydro started with a single shop in Chicago; beneath Harris’s leadership and imaginative and prescient Hydro grew to become the biggest unbiased aftermarket pump firm on the planet. Today, Hydro stands proud with 15 service centres in 9 countries.
Harris was instrumental in defining the tradition of Hydro: unbiased, engineering- and innovation-focused, and dedicated to the shopper. He helped develop programs for buyer training in pump processes, believing that the data of tips on how to safely maintain and function pumps was something that ought to be shared with everyone. He spearheaded many inventions in the way in which pumps are serviced, utilizing state-of-the-art expertise to re-engineer pumps for optimum efficiency.
Harris is survived by his spouse of 56 years, Rita, who he met whereas on the University of Illinois. She later became vice president of Hydro, they usually labored side-by-side to make the corporate preeminent in the industry. Their management was characterised by a particular commitment to their employees, who they handled like household. They inspired all service centres to honour Hydro’s workers with month-to-month employee celebrations and an annual Employee Appreciation Week. As he once said: “Hydro grew to become the company it did due to the dedication of our people – machinists, mechanics, engineers, administrative and gross sales staff – who all share a pivotal role in serving our clients.”
The tradition of care and loyalty nurtured by the Harrises impressed admiration and esteem in all of Hydro’s workers, many of whom have worked at Hydro for greater than 20 years. Harris was additionally well-respected by his peers throughout the pump business. In 2014, he was elected as president of the Hydraulic Institute, the biggest association of pump industry manufacturers in North America. In 2015, Europump awarded him its President’s Silver Award in recognition of his useful contributions to the pump industry.
Bob Jennings, Corporate Trainer, pays a private tribute:
“I started with HydroAire in 1976 and quickly learned that George Harris was the consummate protagonist who always expected more than folks had been willing to supply. As an employee, I realized shortly that half-hearted measures have been unacceptable and an attitude of ‘good enough” was never tolerated. To suppose that he took a rag-tag group of 5 street-wise salesmen and turned the corporate into a world group with 19 services worldwide is an amazing accomplishment. It took exhausting work, long hours, a “never say never” mindset, and teamwork to develop the company as he did. He needed to be the most effective, he needed the company to be the most effective, and he wished every of his workers to be their best.
George was a gifted particular person who had the uncanny capability to “see over the horizon” and will glimpse the future needs of the business lengthy before others had digested last week’s changes.
There was additionally a aspect of George that most people by no means had the opportunity to see: As tenacious a businessman as he was, he was equally generous and caring to these within the “Hydro Family.” George and Rita at all times treated their workers as “adopted sons and daughters” they usually personally bore the burden of knowing that their enterprise choices not only affect the corporate however the well-being and safety of their employees and their households as well.
George might be deeply missed, however his legacy will live on. He employed what he thought-about the “best of breed” and those that shared his imaginative and prescient for the longer term, and the company is saturated with like-minded people who will continue to develop the corporate properly into the future.”
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