Igor Vovkovinskiy, Tallest Man in US, Dies in Minnesota

President Barack Obama, foreground, reaches up to shake the hand of 7 feet 8 inch tall Igor Vovkovinskiy, then 27, of Rochester, Minn. during a health care reform rally at the Target Center in Minneapolis, Minn., on Sept. 12, 2009. Ben Garvin/St. Paul Pioneer Press via AP

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

His family said the Ukrainian-born Vovkovinskiy died of heart disease on Friday at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester. His mother, Svetlana Vovkovinska, an ICU nurse at Mayo, initially posted about his death on Facebook.