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 diploma in Engineering. After graduation, he worked at several major pump firms as an utility 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 trade. From the beginning, Harris believed in bettering the reliability and performance of pumps and inspiring innovation. He was later appointed as president of Hydro.
Hydro began with a single store in Chicago; underneath Harris’s leadership and vision Hydro became the biggest unbiased aftermarket pump company on the earth. Today, Hydro stands proud with 15 service centres in nine countries.
Harris was instrumental in defining the culture of Hydro: unbiased, engineering- and innovation-focused, and devoted to the shopper. He helped develop programs for customer training in pump processes, believing that the data of the way to safely preserve and operate pumps was one thing that ought to be shared with everybody. He spearheaded many innovations in the best way pumps are serviced, utilizing state-of-the-art expertise to re-engineer pumps for max effectivity.
digital pressure gauge is survived by his spouse of fifty six years, Rita, who he met while on the University of Illinois. She later turned vice chairman of Hydro, and so they worked side-by-side to make the company preeminent in the trade. Their management was characterised by a special commitment to their employees, who they treated like household. They encouraged all service centres to honour Hydro’s staff with month-to-month employee celebrations and an annual Employee Appreciation Week. As he as soon as mentioned: “Hydro turned the corporate it did because of the commitment of our individuals – machinists, mechanics, engineers, administrative and gross sales workers – who all share a pivotal function in serving our customers.”
The tradition of care and loyalty nurtured by the Harrises impressed admiration and esteem in all of Hydro’s employees, lots of whom have worked at Hydro for more than 20 years. Harris was also well-respected by his friends throughout the pump business. In 2014, he was elected as president of the Hydraulic Institute, the largest affiliation of pump trade 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 discovered that George Harris was the consummate protagonist who always anticipated greater than people were keen to provide. As an employee, I realized quickly 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 amazing accomplishment. It took exhausting work, long hours, a “never say never” mindset, and teamwork to develop the corporate as he did. He wanted to be the best, he needed the company to be the most effective, and he wanted every of his staff to be their best.
George was a gifted particular person who had the uncanny ability to “see over the horizon” and will glimpse the future needs of the business lengthy earlier than others had digested final week’s adjustments.
There was additionally a side of George that most individuals never had the chance 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 understanding that their business decisions not solely affect the corporate however the well-being and security of their workers and their families as nicely.
George shall be deeply missed, but his legacy will stay on. He employed what he thought of the “best of breed” and people who shared his imaginative and prescient for the longer term, and the company is saturated with like-minded individuals who will continue to develop the company properly into the longer term.”
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