Tributes paid to Hydro, Inc.’s president and founder.
George F. Harris, president and founder of Hydro, Inc.
Hydro, Inc. has announced 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 diploma in Engineering. After graduation, he labored at several major pump firms as an utility engineer and regional supervisor.
In 1969, Harris was one of many four engineers who based Hydro, Inc. with the mission of offering engineering services to the pump aftermarket business. From the start, Harris believed in bettering the reliability and performance of pumps and encouraging innovation. He was later appointed as president of Hydro.
Hydro started with a single store in Chicago; underneath Harris’s management and imaginative and prescient Hydro grew to become the most important independent aftermarket pump company on the earth. Today, Hydro stands proud with 15 service centres in 9 nations.
Harris was instrumental in defining the tradition of Hydro: unbiased, engineering- and innovation-focused, and dedicated to the client. He helped develop programs for customer education in pump processes, believing that the knowledge of how to safely preserve and operate pumps was something that must be shared with everybody. He spearheaded many innovations in the way pumps are serviced, using state-of-the-art expertise to re-engineer pumps for maximum effectivity.
Harris is survived by his wife of fifty six years, Rita, who he met whereas at the University of Illinois. She later grew to become vp of Hydro, they usually labored side-by-side to make the corporate preeminent in the business. Their leadership was characterised by a special dedication to their workers, who they treated like household. They encouraged all service centres to honour Hydro’s staff 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 commitment of our people – machinists, mechanics, engineers, administrative and gross sales workers – who all share a pivotal role in serving our prospects.”
The culture of care and loyalty nurtured by the Harrises inspired admiration and esteem in all of Hydro’s workers, many of whom have worked at Hydro for more than 20 years. Harris was additionally well-respected by his peers within the pump business. In 2014, he was elected as president of the Hydraulic Institute, the biggest 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 industry.
Bob Jennings, Corporate Trainer, pays a private tribute:
“I began with HydroAire in 1976 and rapidly discovered that George Harris was the consummate protagonist who all the time expected greater than people had been willing to supply. As an employee, I learned quickly that half-hearted measures had 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 worldwide organization with 19 services worldwide is an incredible accomplishment. ตัววัดแรงดันน้ำมัน took onerous work, lengthy hours, a “never say never” mindset, and teamwork to develop the company as he did. He wanted to be one of the best, he needed the company to be the most effective, and he wished every of his workers to be their greatest.
George was a gifted particular person who had the uncanny capacity to “see over the horizon” and will glimpse the longer term needs of the industry lengthy before others had digested last week’s changes.
There was also a facet 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 those in the “Hydro Family.” George and Rita always treated their employees as “adopted sons and daughters” they usually personally bore the burden of figuring out that their business choices not solely affect the corporate however the well-being and safety of their workers and their households as properly.
George might be deeply missed, but his legacy will reside on. He hired what he thought-about the “best of breed” and people who shared his vision for the lengthy run, and the company is saturated with like-minded individuals who will continue to develop the corporate properly into the future.”
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