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 got here 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 main pump firms as an utility engineer and regional manager.
In 1969, Harris was one of many four engineers who founded Hydro, Inc. with the mission of offering engineering companies to the pump aftermarket business. 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 began with a single shop in Chicago; beneath Harris’s management and vision Hydro turned the largest 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 dedicated to the shopper. He helped develop applications for buyer schooling in pump processes, believing that the data of the means to safely preserve and operate pumps was one thing that ought to be shared with everybody. He spearheaded many innovations in the means in which pumps are serviced, using state-of-the-art know-how to re-engineer pumps for maximum efficiency.
Harris is survived by his wife of fifty six years, Rita, who he met whereas at the University of Illinois. She later became vice chairman of Hydro, they usually worked side-by-side to make the company preeminent in the industry. Their leadership was characterised by a particular commitment to their workers, who they treated like family. Special encouraged all service centres to honour Hydro’s employees with month-to-month worker celebrations and an annual Employee Appreciation Week. As he once stated: “Hydro became the company it did because of the commitment of our individuals – machinists, mechanics, engineers, administrative and gross sales employees – who all share a pivotal function in serving our clients.”
The tradition of care and loyalty nurtured by the Harrises impressed admiration and esteem in all of Hydro’s employees, lots of whom have labored at Hydro for more than 20 years. Harris was additionally well-respected by his peers throughout the pump business. In 2014, he was elected as president of the Hydraulic Institute, the largest association of pump trade manufacturers in North America. In 2015, Europump awarded him its President’s Silver Award in recognition of his valuable contributions to the pump business.
Bob Jennings, Corporate Trainer, pays a personal tribute:
“I began with HydroAire in 1976 and shortly learned that George Harris was the consummate protagonist who always expected more than folks have been prepared to provide. As an worker, I realized shortly that half-hearted measures were unacceptable and an perspective 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 world organization with 19 services 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 wanted to be one of the best, he needed the company to be the most effective, and he wanted each of his employees 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 trade long before others had digested last week’s adjustments.
There was additionally a aspect of George that most people never had the opportunity 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 workers as “adopted sons and daughters” they usually personally bore the burden of knowing that their enterprise decisions not solely have an effect on the corporate however the well-being and security of their employees and their families as well.
George shall be deeply missed, but his legacy will reside on. He hired what he thought-about the “best of breed” and those who shared his vision for the longer term, and the company is saturated with like-minded people who will continue to develop the company nicely into the longer term.”
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