KaZaK,
also known as the "hound of
space", was immortalized
in Kurt Vonnegut's book The
Sirens of Titan in 1959.
To founder Jerry Fanucci, an
aerospace engineer with a PhD
from MIT, the name sounded
magic. Fanucci came up with
it 10 years before he founded
the company in 1992.
While visiting Sony in Japan, Dr.
Fanucci attended a presentation
on the principles of choosing a
good corporate name. There he learned
what makes a good company name,
including that it should be five letters or fewer; it should be symmetric; it should include
the letters k, z and x; it shouldn't
limit the company to a specific
product line; and it should evoke a
certain feeling. Dr. Fanucci was
reading The Sirens of Titan at
the time, in which the protagonist
and his faithful dog, Kazak, travel
together throughout the universe.
It was then that Dr. Fanucci decided
that when he founded his own company,
it would be named KaZaK.
Some may call
the decision to name his company
KaZaK "foreshadowing", but
KaZaK Composites, Inc. eventually
went on to pultrude composite
parts for an instrument boom
on the Cassini spacecraft, which
dropped a probe on Titan. Since
this was a scenario that could
have been straight out of The Sirens
of Titan, Dr. Fanucci knew
the magic was real.
