George F. Harris – An Appreciation

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 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 labored at a quantity of major pump firms as an application engineer and regional supervisor.
In 1969, Harris was one of many four engineers who based Hydro, Inc. with the mission of providing engineering providers to the pump aftermarket industry. 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 started with a single shop in Chicago; under Harris’s leadership and vision Hydro became the biggest independent aftermarket pump company on the planet. Today, Hydro stands proud with 15 service centres in nine nations.
Harris was instrumental in defining the tradition of Hydro: unbiased, engineering- and innovation-focused, and dedicated to the client. He helped develop packages for customer training in pump processes, believing that the knowledge of how to safely maintain and function pumps was something that should be shared with everybody. เกจวัดแรงดันแก๊สco2 spearheaded many inventions in the method in which pumps are serviced, utilizing state-of-the-art technology to re-engineer pumps for max efficiency.
Harris is survived by his wife of fifty six years, Rita, who he met whereas at the University of Illinois. She later turned vice president of Hydro, they usually worked side-by-side to make the company preeminent in the trade. Their leadership was characterised by a particular dedication to their employees, who they treated like household. They inspired all service centres to honour Hydro’s employees with monthly employee celebrations and an annual Employee Appreciation Week. As he once mentioned: “Hydro turned the company it did because of the dedication of our folks – machinists, mechanics, engineers, administrative and sales workers – who all share a pivotal function in serving our clients.”
The culture of care and loyalty nurtured by the Harrises impressed admiration and esteem in all of Hydro’s workers, lots of whom have worked 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 most important association of pump industry producers 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 rapidly discovered that George Harris was the consummate protagonist who at all times anticipated greater than people had been prepared to offer. As an employee, I realized shortly that half-hearted measures had been unacceptable and an angle 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 worldwide organization with 19 amenities worldwide is an incredible accomplishment. It took exhausting work, lengthy hours, a “never say never” mindset, and teamwork to grow the company as he did. He wanted to be one of the best, he wished the corporate 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 could glimpse the future wants of the business long earlier than others had digested last week’s adjustments.
There was additionally a side of George that most people never had the chance 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 treated their workers as “adopted sons and daughters” they usually personally bore the burden of figuring out that their enterprise selections not solely affect the corporate however the well-being and security of their workers and their families as properly.
George shall be deeply missed, however his legacy will reside 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 corporate is saturated with like-minded individuals who will continue to develop the company properly into the future.”
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