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 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. He attended the University of Illinois at Champaign and graduated with a Bachelor of Science diploma in Engineering. After commencement, he worked at several major pump firms as an utility engineer and regional manager.
In 1969, Harris was one of the four engineers who based Hydro, Inc. with the mission of providing engineering services to the pump aftermarket business. From the beginning, Harris believed in improving the reliability and efficiency of pumps and inspiring innovation. He was later appointed as president of Hydro.
Hydro started with a single shop in Chicago; beneath Harris’s leadership and imaginative and prescient Hydro turned the most important unbiased aftermarket pump firm in the world. Today, Hydro stands proud with 15 service centres in 9 countries.
Harris was instrumental in defining the tradition of Hydro: unbiased, engineering- and innovation-focused, and devoted to the customer. He helped develop programs for customer education in pump processes, believing that the data of the means to safely keep and operate pumps was one thing that must be shared with everyone. He spearheaded many innovations in the way pumps are serviced, using state-of-the-art technology to re-engineer pumps for optimum effectivity.
Harris is survived by his spouse of fifty six years, Rita, who he met while on the University of Illinois. She later turned vice president of Hydro, and so they worked side-by-side to make the corporate preeminent within the business. Their leadership was characterised by a particular commitment to their staff, who they handled like family. They encouraged all service centres to honour Hydro’s workers with month-to-month employee celebrations and an annual Employee Appreciation Week. As he as quickly as stated: “Hydro turned the company it did because of the dedication of our people – machinists, mechanics, engineers, administrative and gross sales staff – who all share a pivotal function in serving our prospects.”
The culture of care and loyalty nurtured by the Harrises inspired admiration and esteem in all of Hydro’s employees, lots 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 biggest affiliation 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 business.
Bob Jennings, Corporate Trainer, pays a private tribute:
“I started with HydroAire in 1976 and shortly learned that George Harris was the consummate protagonist who all the time anticipated more than people had been prepared to supply. As an worker, I realized quickly 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 global group with 19 services worldwide is an amazing accomplishment. It took onerous 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 most effective, and he needed each of his workers to be their finest.
pressure gauge หน้าปัด 4 นิ้ว was a gifted individual who had the uncanny ability to “see over the horizon” and will glimpse the longer term wants of the industry long earlier than others had digested last week’s changes.
There was also a side of George that most individuals by no means had the chance to see: As tenacious a businessman as he was, he was equally beneficiant and caring to these in the “Hydro Family.” George and Rita at all times treated their staff as “adopted sons and daughters” and so they personally bore the burden of knowing that their enterprise selections not only affect the corporate but the well-being and security of their workers and their households as nicely.
George shall be deeply missed, but his legacy will stay on. He hired what he thought-about the “best of breed” and those who shared his vision for the future, and the company is saturated with like-minded people who will continue to grow the company properly into the long run.”
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