University of Minnesota student leader Chris Pomarico amused his friends and professors, but was serious about what he wanted to do for a career.
Pomarico, a lifelong pet owner who had planned to open a pet store, died of a suspected heart attack in his St. Paul apartment on Sunday. He was 26.
Pomarico, who moved from New York to Mankato in the late 1990s, graduated from Mankato East High School in 1999.
While growing up in New York, he raised a lot of pets -- cocker spaniels, lizards, rats, turtles, tropical fish, tropical birds and a cat.
In Mankato, he was a sales person for pet and computer stores, said his mother, Evelyn of Mankato. "He could sell you anything," said his mother. "He could convince you of anything."
Pomarico spent Thanksgiving with his mother. She said he had been under a lot of stress, but didn't have a history of heart disease. On Sunday, he went home early from one of his part-time jobs, feeling nauseous.
Recalling their Thanksgiving together, Evelyn said he liked to kid people and get the laughter rolling. "He just loved to laugh. He laughed with such enthusiasm," she said.
Pomarico moved to St. Paul more than three years ago to finish the college degree that he had begun at Minnesota State University, Mankato.