Tributes paid to Hydro, Inc.’s president and founder.
George F. Harris, president and founder 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 degree in Engineering. After graduation, he worked at a quantity of major pump corporations as an software engineer and regional manager.
In 1969, Harris was one of many four engineers who based Hydro, Inc. with the mission of offering engineering companies to the pump aftermarket industry. From the beginning, Harris believed in enhancing 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; under Harris’s management and vision Hydro turned the most important impartial aftermarket pump company in the world. Today, Hydro stands proud with 15 service centres in 9 countries.
Harris was instrumental in defining the culture of Hydro: unbiased, engineering- and innovation-focused, and dedicated to the customer. He helped develop applications for customer schooling in pump processes, believing that the information of the means to safely preserve and operate pumps was something that must be shared with everyone. He spearheaded many innovations in the greatest way pumps are serviced, using state-of-the-art technology to re-engineer pumps for maximum effectivity.
Harris is survived by his wife of 56 years, Rita, who he met while at the University of Illinois. She later turned vice chairman of Hydro, and they labored side-by-side to make the corporate preeminent within the industry. Their management was characterised by a particular commitment to their workers, who they handled like family. They inspired all service centres to honour Hydro’s staff with month-to-month employee celebrations and an annual Employee Appreciation Week. As he once mentioned: “Hydro grew to become the company it did because of the commitment of our individuals – machinists, mechanics, engineers, administrative and gross sales staff – who all share a pivotal function in serving our clients.”
The tradition of care and loyalty nurtured by the Harrises impressed admiration and esteem in all of Hydro’s workers, lots of whom have labored at Hydro for greater than 20 years. Harris was additionally well-respected by his peers inside the pump industry. In 2014, he was elected as president of the Hydraulic Institute, the most important affiliation of pump trade producers in North America. In เกจวัดแรงดันpcp , Europump awarded him its President’s Silver Award in recognition of his priceless contributions to the pump business.
Bob Jennings, Corporate Trainer, pays a personal tribute:
“I began with HydroAire in 1976 and rapidly discovered that George Harris was the consummate protagonist who all the time anticipated greater than folks had been willing to provide. As an employee, I realized rapidly that half-hearted measures have been unacceptable and an angle of ‘good enough” was by no means tolerated. To suppose that he took a rag-tag group of 5 street-wise salesmen and turned the company into a worldwide organization with 19 facilities worldwide is a tremendous accomplishment. It took hard work, long hours, a “never say never” mindset, and teamwork to develop the corporate as he did. He wished to be the best, he needed the company to be the best, and he wished each of his employees to be their greatest.
George was a gifted individual who had the uncanny capacity to “see over the horizon” and could glimpse the longer term needs of the trade long before others had digested last week’s adjustments.
There was also a facet of George that most people by no means had the opportunity to see: As tenacious a businessman as he was, he was equally beneficiant and caring to those in the “Hydro Family.” George and Rita at all times handled their staff as “adopted sons and daughters” and they personally bore the burden of figuring out that their business selections not only affect the corporate however the well-being and safety of their workers and their families as properly.
George shall be deeply missed, but his legacy will reside on. He hired what he thought of the “best of breed” and people who shared his imaginative and prescient for the future, and the company is saturated with like-minded people who will proceed to develop the company properly into the future.”
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