George F. Harris – An Appreciation

Tributes paid to Hydro, Inc.’s president and founder.
George F. Harris, president and founding father of Hydro, Inc.
Hydro, Inc. has introduced 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. เพรสเชอร์เกจnuovafima attended the University of Illinois at Champaign and graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering. After commencement, he worked at several major pump firms as an application engineer and regional manager.
In 1969, Harris was one of many four engineers who based Hydro, Inc. with the mission of offering engineering services to the pump aftermarket trade. From the beginning, Harris believed in bettering the reliability and efficiency of pumps and encouraging innovation. He was later appointed as president of Hydro.
Hydro started with a single shop in Chicago; beneath Harris’s management and imaginative and prescient Hydro became the biggest unbiased aftermarket pump firm on the earth. Today, Hydro stands proud with 15 service centres in nine international locations.
Harris was instrumental in defining the tradition of Hydro: unbiased, engineering- and innovation-focused, and devoted to the shopper. He helped develop packages for buyer training in pump processes, believing that the information of tips on how to safely preserve and function pumps was something that must be shared with everyone. He spearheaded many inventions in the way pumps are serviced, using state-of-the-art expertise to re-engineer pumps for max effectivity.
Harris is survived by his spouse of 56 years, Rita, who he met while at the University of Illinois. She later turned vice president of Hydro, and so they worked side-by-side to make the company preeminent in the trade. Their management was characterised by a particular dedication to their staff, who they handled like family. They encouraged all service centres to honour Hydro’s workers with monthly employee celebrations and an annual Employee Appreciation Week. As he as soon as stated: “Hydro became the company it did because of the dedication of our individuals – machinists, mechanics, engineers, administrative and gross sales staff – who all share a pivotal role in serving our clients.”
The culture of care and loyalty nurtured by the Harrises impressed admiration and esteem in all of Hydro’s staff, a lot of whom have worked at Hydro for more than 20 years. Harris was also well-respected by his peers within the pump industry. 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 useful contributions to the pump trade.
Bob Jennings, Corporate Trainer, pays a private tribute:
“I started with HydroAire in 1976 and shortly discovered that George Harris was the consummate protagonist who at all times anticipated more than folks had been prepared to offer. As an worker, I learned rapidly that half-hearted measures had been unacceptable and an perspective 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 world organization with 19 amenities worldwide is an incredible accomplishment. It took exhausting work, long hours, a “never say never” mindset, and teamwork to grow the corporate as he did. He needed to be one of the best, he wished the company to be the best, and he wanted every of his workers to be their greatest.
George was a gifted particular person who had the uncanny ability to “see over the horizon” and will glimpse the lengthy run wants of the industry lengthy earlier than others had digested last week’s changes.
There was additionally a aspect of George that most individuals never had the opportunity to see: As tenacious a businessman as he was, he was equally generous and caring to these in the “Hydro Family.” George and Rita always handled their workers as “adopted sons and daughters” and so they personally bore the burden of understanding that their business decisions not solely affect the company but the well-being and security of their staff and their households as properly.
George might be deeply missed, but his legacy will reside on. He employed what he thought-about the “best of breed” and those who shared his imaginative and prescient for the lengthy run, and the corporate is saturated with like-minded individuals who will proceed to grow the corporate nicely into the longer term.”
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