Tributes paid to Hydro, Inc.’s president and founder.
George F. Harris, president and founding father 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 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 number of major pump firms as an application engineer and regional supervisor.
In 1969, Harris was one of the 4 engineers who founded Hydro, Inc. with the mission of offering engineering services to the pump aftermarket industry. From the start, Harris believed in improving the reliability and performance of pumps and encouraging innovation. He was later appointed as president of Hydro.
ที่วัดแรงดันน้ำ started with a single shop in Chicago; underneath Harris’s leadership and imaginative and prescient Hydro turned the most important independent aftermarket pump company on the planet. Today, Hydro stands proud with 15 service centres in nine nations.
Harris was instrumental in defining the culture 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 how to safely keep and operate pumps was something that must be shared with everybody. He spearheaded many inventions in the best way pumps are serviced, using state-of-the-art technology to re-engineer pumps for max effectivity.
Harris is survived by his wife of 56 years, Rita, who he met while at the University of Illinois. She later grew to become vp of Hydro, they usually worked side-by-side to make the company preeminent in the business. Their leadership was characterised by a special commitment to their workers, who they handled like household. 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 stated: “Hydro became the company it did because of the commitment of our individuals – machinists, mechanics, engineers, administrative and sales staff – who all share a pivotal position in serving our clients.”
The tradition of care and loyalty nurtured by the Harrises impressed admiration and esteem in all of Hydro’s employees, many of whom have labored at Hydro for more than 20 years. Harris was additionally well-respected by his friends within the pump business. In 2014, he was elected as president of the Hydraulic Institute, the biggest 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 personal tribute:
“I started with HydroAire in 1976 and rapidly realized that George Harris was the consummate protagonist who always anticipated more than people were prepared to provide. As an employee, I discovered shortly that half-hearted measures have been unacceptable and an attitude of ‘good enough” was never tolerated. To assume that he took a rag-tag group of 5 street-wise salesmen and turned the company into a worldwide group with 19 facilities worldwide is an amazing accomplishment. It took onerous work, long hours, a “never say never” mindset, and teamwork to develop the company as he did. He wanted to be one of the best, he wanted the company to be the most effective, and he needed every of his workers to be their finest.
George was a gifted particular person who had the uncanny capability to “see over the horizon” and could glimpse the longer term needs of the industry long earlier than others had digested last 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 all the time handled their workers as “adopted sons and daughters” and they personally bore the burden of understanding that their enterprise selections not solely have an effect on the corporate but the well-being and security of their workers and their families as nicely.
George might be deeply missed, but his legacy will reside on. He hired what he thought of the “best of breed” and those who shared his imaginative and prescient for the longer term, and the corporate is saturated with like-minded people who will continue to grow the company nicely into the lengthy run.”
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