Kenwalt Die Casting Company

ABOUT THE OWNER

Walter Zaucha and son Ken Zaucha Sr were born and raised in Cleveland,?Ohio. Walter was an outstanding?baseball player in the 1930's?back in the days of?Babe Ruth,?Joe DeMaggio,?Bob Feller,Dizzy Dean?and others. In fact, Walter was such an outstanding baseball player?that he was drafted to play Professional Baseball by the?Cleveland Indians Major League Baseball Team. Unfortunately for?Walter and the game of baseball, ballplayers were paid little money in those days,?so Walter decided instead to work?to help support his mother and the rest of his family. Walter worked over 30 years at?Superior Die Cast Company?in Cleveland, Ohio.

In the late 1950's the Zaucha family relocated to Los Angeles, California where Walter applied his extensive?die casting experience?as?Plant Manager of?Withrow Die Casting Company?in North Hollywood, California. Walter was?loved by?die cast foundry employees as well as the?die casting company owners for successful attainment of production goals and his continuous development of responsible reliable employees. Walter had a great reputation and a wonderful sense of humor and was instrumental in making his fellow die cast operators and trimmers some of the highest paid die cast employees at the time.

Ken Zaucha Sr's passion for engineering and mathematics lead him to work in the?Rocketdyne engineering development center located in?Canoga Park, California?while attending engineering classes at?Pierce College. His experience at Rocketdyne, subsequently owned by?Boeing?and is now a subsidary of?United Technologies Corporation?(UTC)?and?known as?Pratt Whitney?Rocketdyne, included rocket engine building and testing at?Rocketdyne's Santa Susana Field Laboratory?test facility, maintenance, overhaul and review and reporting of rocket engine perfomance.

The rocket engines supporting?NASA's?Apollo?Space Flight Missions?(Apollo 11) and?NASA's Saturn?Space Flight Missions?which ultimately landed the first man?on the moon were all tested at the Santa Susana Laboratory Test Facility.

BUSINESS INFORMATION