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.
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 diploma in Engineering. After graduation, he worked at several main pump companies as an utility engineer and regional supervisor.
In 1969, Harris was one of many four engineers who founded Hydro, Inc. with the mission of providing engineering providers to the pump aftermarket industry. From the start, Harris believed in bettering the reliability and performance of pumps and encouraging innovation. เกจวัดแก๊ส was later appointed as president of Hydro.
Hydro started with a single shop in Chicago; under Harris’s leadership and imaginative and prescient Hydro grew to become the biggest unbiased aftermarket pump firm on the earth. 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 customer. He helped develop packages for buyer education in pump processes, believing that the information of the way to safely maintain and operate pumps was one thing that should be shared with everyone. He spearheaded many innovations in the way pumps are serviced, using state-of-the-art expertise to re-engineer pumps for max effectivity.
Harris is survived by his wife of fifty six years, Rita, who he met while at the University of Illinois. She later grew to become vice president of Hydro, and they labored side-by-side to make the corporate preeminent in the trade. Their leadership was characterised by a special commitment to their employees, who they handled like family. They inspired all service centres to honour Hydro’s staff with monthly worker celebrations and an annual Employee Appreciation Week. As he once mentioned: “Hydro grew to become the corporate it did due to the dedication of our individuals – machinists, mechanics, engineers, administrative and sales staff – who all share a pivotal role in serving our prospects.”
The tradition 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 also well-respected by his peers within the pump trade. In 2014, he was elected as president of the Hydraulic Institute, the biggest affiliation of pump business manufacturers in North America. In 2015, 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 started with HydroAire in 1976 and quickly realized that George Harris was the consummate protagonist who all the time anticipated greater than folks were keen to supply. As an employee, I discovered quickly that half-hearted measures had been 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 worldwide organization with 19 facilities worldwide is an amazing accomplishment. It took onerous work, lengthy hours, a “never say never” mindset, and teamwork to develop the corporate as he did. He needed to be the most effective, he wanted the corporate to be one of the best, and he wished each of his workers to be their best.
George was a gifted particular person who had the uncanny capability to “see over the horizon” and could glimpse the lengthy run needs of the industry long before others had digested last week’s changes.
There was additionally a side 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 those within the “Hydro Family.” George and Rita always treated their workers as “adopted sons and daughters” and they personally bore the burden of understanding that their enterprise selections not only have an effect on the company however the well-being and security of their employees and their families as properly.
George will be deeply missed, however his legacy will stay on. He hired what he thought of the “best of breed” and those that shared his vision for the long run, and the corporate is saturated with like-minded people who will continue to develop the company well into the longer term.”
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