Tributes paid to Hydro, Inc.’s president and founder.
George F. Harris, president and founding father 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 worked at several major pump corporations as an utility engineer and regional supervisor.
In 1969, Harris was one of the 4 engineers who founded Hydro, Inc. with the mission of offering engineering companies to the pump aftermarket industry. From the start, Harris believed in improving the reliability and performance of pumps and inspiring innovation. He was later appointed as president of Hydro.
Hydro started with a single store in Chicago; underneath Harris’s leadership 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 9 nations.
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 information of the way to safely preserve and function pumps was something that must be shared with everyone. He spearheaded many innovations in the method in which pumps are serviced, using state-of-the-art expertise to re-engineer pumps for max efficiency.
ไดอะแฟรม ซีล is survived by his wife of 56 years, Rita, who he met whereas at the University of Illinois. She later grew to become vice president of Hydro, and they worked side-by-side to make the company preeminent in the trade. Their leadership was characterised by a special commitment to their employees, who they treated like family. They encouraged all service centres to honour Hydro’s staff with month-to-month employee celebrations and an annual Employee Appreciation Week. As he as soon as stated: “Hydro turned the company it did because of the commitment of our folks – machinists, mechanics, engineers, administrative and sales employees – who all share a pivotal function in serving our clients.”

The tradition of care and loyalty nurtured by the Harrises inspired admiration and esteem in all of Hydro’s workers, a lot of whom have labored at Hydro for greater 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 association of pump industry manufacturers in North America. In 2015, Europump awarded him its President’s Silver Award in recognition of his priceless contributions to the pump trade.
Bob Jennings, Corporate Trainer, pays a personal tribute:
“I started with HydroAire in 1976 and rapidly learned that George Harris was the consummate protagonist who at all times expected greater than people had been willing to provide. As an employee, I realized quickly that half-hearted measures have been unacceptable and an angle of ‘good enough” was by no means tolerated. To suppose that pressure gauge took a rag-tag group of 5 street-wise salesmen and turned the corporate into a world group with 19 facilities worldwide is an incredible accomplishment. It took onerous work, long hours, a “never say never” mindset, and teamwork to develop the company as he did. He wanted to be one of the best, he needed the corporate to be the most effective, and he wanted every of his staff to be their greatest.
George was a gifted individual who had the uncanny capability to “see over the horizon” and will glimpse the longer term wants of the trade long earlier than others had digested last week’s changes.
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 beneficiant and caring to those in the “Hydro Family.” George and Rita all the time treated their workers as “adopted sons and daughters” and so they personally bore the burden of knowing that their business choices not solely have an result on the company but the well-being and safety of their employees and their families as properly.
George will be deeply missed, but his legacy will reside on. He hired what he thought of the “best of breed” and people who shared his imaginative and prescient for the long run, and the corporate is saturated with like-minded individuals who will continue to develop the corporate properly into the long run.”

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