The U.S. Naval Academy is investigating the death of a midshipman from Pleasant View who died in Philadelphia on Tuesday.

Midshipman 1st Class Taylor Connors, 24, died with family members at his bedside, according to a Naval Academy news release. The circumstances surrounding his death are under investigation, but foul play is not suspected, the release said.

“He was on leave at the time,” academy spokesperson Madelyn Flayler said Wednesday. She declined to give further information.

“Our Naval Academy community is mourning a tragic loss this week of a life taken far too soon,” Vice Admiral Sean Buck, academy superintendent, said in a prepared statement. “Midshipman Taylor Connors honorably served his nation as a Marine and as a midshipman.”

Connors attended Utah Military Academy and enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps in 2016, according to the release. He achieved the rank of corporal before receiving a Secretary of the Navy nomination for an appointment to the Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland. He reported to Annapolis with the class of 2023 in June 2019.

“Taylor Connors was the best of us. He was a true mentor and leader among his peers, but I know he saw himself as a Marine infantryman first and foremost,” said Marine Corps Maj. David R. Emison II, the Naval Academy’s training officer. “There is something to be said about an ethos like the one he exemplified. Taylor was intensely bright, thoughtful, and a man of faith.”

As a Marine rifleman, Connors had been deployed to Bahrain and Rota, Spain, on security assignments, the academy said.

Funeral arrangements were pending as of Wednesday morning.

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