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 20th, 2021.
เกจ์วัดแรงดัน 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 commencement, he labored at several major pump corporations as an software engineer and regional manager.
In 1969, Harris was one of the 4 engineers who founded Hydro, Inc. with the mission of offering engineering services to the pump aftermarket business. From the start, Harris believed in improving the reliability and performance of pumps and encouraging innovation. He was later appointed as president of Hydro.
Hydro started with a single shop in Chicago; under Harris’s management and imaginative and prescient Hydro turned the most important independent aftermarket pump company in the world. Today, Hydro stands proud with 15 service centres in 9 international locations.
Harris was instrumental in defining the tradition of Hydro: unbiased, engineering- and innovation-focused, and devoted to the customer. He helped develop packages for customer education in pump processes, believing that the data of tips on how to safely keep and function pumps was one thing that should be shared with everybody. He spearheaded many innovations in the way pumps are serviced, utilizing state-of-the-art expertise to re-engineer pumps for optimum efficiency.
Harris is survived by his wife of 56 years, Rita, who he met whereas at the University of Illinois. She later became vice president of Hydro, and so they worked side-by-side to make the company preeminent in the trade. Their leadership was characterised by a particular commitment to their workers, who they handled 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 said: “Hydro turned the corporate it did due to the dedication of our individuals – machinists, mechanics, engineers, administrative and gross sales workers – who all share a pivotal function in serving our prospects.”
The culture of care and loyalty nurtured by the Harrises inspired admiration and esteem in all of Hydro’s employees, many of whom have labored at Hydro for more than 20 years. Harris was also well-respected by his friends throughout the pump trade. 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 trade.
Bob Jennings, Corporate Trainer, pays a private tribute:
“I started with HydroAire in 1976 and shortly realized that George Harris was the consummate protagonist who always expected greater than individuals have been willing to offer. As an worker, I discovered rapidly that half-hearted measures were unacceptable and an angle of ‘good enough” was never tolerated. To think that he took a rag-tag group of 5 street-wise salesmen and turned the company into a worldwide group with 19 amenities worldwide is an incredible accomplishment. It took exhausting work, lengthy hours, a “never say never” mindset, and teamwork to grow the corporate as he did. He needed to be the most effective, he wished the company to be the best, and he wished each of his staff to be their finest.
George was a gifted individual who had the uncanny capability to “see over the horizon” and will glimpse the longer term wants of the business long earlier than others had digested final week’s adjustments.
There was additionally a aspect of George that most individuals by no means had the opportunity to see: As tenacious a businessman as he was, he was equally generous and caring to those within the “Hydro Family.” George and Rita at all times treated their workers as “adopted sons and daughters” and so they personally bore the burden of knowing that their enterprise choices not solely affect the company but the well-being and security of their staff and their households as properly.
George might be deeply missed, however his legacy will stay on. He hired what he thought of the “best of breed” and those who shared his imaginative and prescient for the future, and the corporate is saturated with like-minded individuals who will proceed to develop the corporate properly into the future.”
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