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 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 diploma in Engineering. After commencement, he labored at several main pump companies as an application engineer and regional supervisor.
In 1969, Harris was one of many four engineers who founded Hydro, Inc. with the mission of offering engineering services to the pump aftermarket business. From the beginning, Harris believed in bettering the reliability and performance of pumps and encouraging innovation. He was later appointed as president of Hydro.
Hydro started with a single store in Chicago; under Harris’s management and vision Hydro grew to become the most important unbiased aftermarket pump company in the world. 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 programs for buyer training in pump processes, believing that the data of the method to safely preserve and function pumps was something that must be shared with everybody. He spearheaded many inventions in the method in which pumps are serviced, using state-of-the-art technology to re-engineer pumps for optimum effectivity.
Harris is survived by his spouse of 56 years, Rita, who he met whereas at the University of Illinois. She later turned vp of Hydro, they usually labored side-by-side to make the company preeminent in the industry. Their leadership was characterised by a special commitment to their staff, who they treated like family. They encouraged all service centres to honour Hydro’s employees with month-to-month worker celebrations and an annual Employee Appreciation Week. As he as soon as mentioned: “Hydro became the company it did due to the commitment of our people – machinists, mechanics, engineers, administrative and sales employees – who all share a pivotal position in serving our customers.”
The culture 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 greater than 20 years. Harris was also well-respected by his friends within the pump business. In 2014, he was elected as president of the Hydraulic Institute, the largest association of pump business producers in North America. In 2015, Europump awarded him its President’s Silver Award in recognition of his useful contributions to the pump business.
pressure gauge ยี่ห้อ tk , Corporate Trainer, pays a personal tribute:
“I started with HydroAire in 1976 and quickly realized that George Harris was the consummate protagonist who at all times anticipated more than folks have been prepared to offer. As an employee, I learned shortly that half-hearted measures were unacceptable and an perspective 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 world organization with 19 amenities 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 one of the best, he wanted the corporate to be the most effective, and he needed each of his staff to be their best.
George was a gifted particular person who had the uncanny capability to “see over the horizon” and will glimpse the longer term needs of the business long before others had digested final week’s modifications.
There was additionally a side of George that most people by no means had the chance 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 employees as “adopted sons and daughters” they usually personally bore the burden of understanding that their enterprise choices not only have an effect on the company however the well-being and safety of their workers and their households as nicely.
George might be deeply missed, however his legacy will reside on. He employed what he thought-about the “best of breed” and those that shared his imaginative and prescient for the longer term, and the corporate is saturated with like-minded people who will proceed to develop the corporate properly into the future.”
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