Igor Vovkovinskiy, tallest man in US, dies in Minnesota

FILE - In this Sept. 12, 2009 file photo, Igor Vovkovinskiy, 27, of Rochester, Minn, standing 7-feet and 8-inches tall, listens to President Barack Obama, not pictured, during a health insurance reform rally in Minneapolis. Vovkovinskiy, the tallest man in the United States, has died in Minnesota. He was 38. His family says the Ukrainian-born Vovkovinskiy died of heart disease Friday, Aug. 20, 2021, at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester. (AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari, File)

ROCHESTER, Minn. (AP) — Igor Vovkovinskiy, the tallest man in the United States, has died in Minnesota. He was 38.

His family says the Ukrainian-born Vovkovinskiy died of heart disease Friday at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester.

He came to the Mayo Clinic in 1989 as a child.

His size was due to a tumor pressing against his pituitary gland.

He grew to become the tallest man in the U.S. at 7 feet, 8.33 inches.

Vovkovinskiy’s older brother tells the Star Tribune that he was already a celebrity when he arrived from Ukraine, but that he “would have rather lived a normal life than be known.”

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