Matthew Peter Tassio dreamed of a summer of travel and adventure before crossing the threshold of adulthood into his first real job.
On Thursday, the 22-year-old electrical engineer lost his life in Spain, trying to outrace the famed bulls of Pamplona."This was his first time (abroad)," said his aunt, Cindy Ward. "It was a graduation present to himself. He used money he got from graduation to go."
Tassio was hooked in the side by an 1,100-pound bull as he stumbled or was knocked down to the cobbled street during the city's annual San Fermin festival. He died at a hospital a short time later.
Injuries are frequent in the 825-yard bull runs, but Tassio's death was the first since 1980, when two Spaniards were gored. He was the
13th person fatally gored in the frenetic run since 1924, when officials began keeping track of the number of deaths.
Pamplona has been host to the San Fermin festival since 1591, but the running of the bulls has become a mass event only in recent decades.
Each morning of the eight-day festival, Pamplona's largest tourist attraction, crowds of people scramble down the ancient city's narrow streets, dodging bulls allowed to run from their corral to the ring for afternoon bull fights.
For many, the running of the bulls is a dream inspired by the festival's depiction in Ernest Hemingway's 1926 novel, "The Sun Also Rises."
But for Tassio and his traveling companion, the festival apparently was a last-minute addition to a casual travel itinerary that had included Egypt, Italy and parts of France.
"When the opportunity arose, they worked it into their plans," Tassio's father, Thomas Tassio, said Thursday from his home in suburban Glen Ellyn.
Tassio, a financial analyst for Quaker Oats Co., said he was informed early Thursday about his son's death by the American consulate. He spoke briefly with his son's traveling companion, who said the two had lost one another in the crowd as the bulls raced forward.
The oldest of three children in a tightknit Italian-American family, Tassio attended Benet Academy, a Roman Catholic high school in suburban Lisle, before enrolling at the University of Illinois.
The trip capped four years of hard work in electrical engineering, friends and relatives said. He was to start working this fall at Motorola Inc., and Tassio intended to stay in Europe until his money ran out.
"He was a wonderful kid, having a wonderful holiday," Ward said. "He was so excited about going."
Jim Howard, 22, said his college roommate eagerly anticipated his summer break.