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 degree in Engineering. After commencement, he labored at a quantity of major pump corporations as an utility engineer and regional supervisor.
In 1969, Harris was one of many 4 engineers who founded Hydro, Inc. with the mission of providing engineering providers to the pump aftermarket trade. 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 shop in Chicago; under Harris’s management and vision Hydro turned the biggest unbiased aftermarket pump company on the planet. Today, Hydro stands proud with 15 service centres in 9 nations.
Harris was instrumental in defining the culture of Hydro: unbiased, engineering- and innovation-focused, and dedicated to the shopper. He helped develop programs for customer training in pump processes, believing that the knowledge of tips on how to safely preserve and operate pumps was one thing that ought to be shared with everyone. He spearheaded many innovations in the way pumps are serviced, using state-of-the-art technology 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 chairman of Hydro, they usually worked side-by-side to make the company preeminent within the trade. Their leadership was characterised by a special dedication to their workers, who they treated like family. They inspired all service centres to honour Hydro’s employees with month-to-month employee celebrations and an annual Employee Appreciation Week. As he once mentioned: “Hydro became the company it did due to the dedication of our folks – machinists, mechanics, engineers, administrative and sales employees – who all share a pivotal role in serving our clients.”
The culture of care and loyalty nurtured by the Harrises inspired admiration and esteem in all of Hydro’s staff, a lot of whom have labored at Hydro for greater than 20 years. Harris was additionally well-respected by his friends throughout the pump trade. In 2014, he was elected as president of the Hydraulic Institute, the most important affiliation of pump industry 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 private tribute:
“I started with HydroAire in 1976 and quickly learned that George Harris was the consummate protagonist who always expected greater than people have been prepared to supply. As pressure gauge ด้าน ดูด , I learned shortly that half-hearted measures were unacceptable and an attitude of ‘good enough” was by no means tolerated. To think that he took a rag-tag group of 5 street-wise salesmen and turned the company into a global group with 19 services worldwide is an amazing accomplishment. It took hard work, long hours, a “never say never” mindset, and teamwork to develop the company as he did. He wished to be the most effective, he needed the company to be the most effective, and he wished each of his staff to be their greatest.
George was a gifted individual who had the uncanny capacity to “see over the horizon” and will glimpse the lengthy run needs of the industry lengthy before others had digested last week’s changes.
There was also a aspect of George that most people 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 at all times handled their staff as “adopted sons and daughters” they usually personally bore the burden of figuring out that their enterprise choices not solely have an effect on the company however the well-being and security of their employees and their households as nicely.
George will be deeply missed, but his legacy will reside on. He hired what he considered the “best of breed” and those who shared his vision for the lengthy run, and the corporate is saturated with like-minded people who will proceed to develop the corporate nicely into the longer term.”
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