Igor Vovkovinskiy, Tallest Man in US, Dies in Minnesota

ROCHESTER (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 says he was already a celebrity when he arrived from Ukraine, but that he ``would have rather lived a normal life than be known.''