The Virginia park ranger was struck by lightning seven times between 1942 and 1977, surviving every incident and earning a place in Guinness World Records as the person who survived the most lightning strikes.
His encounters left him with burns, singed hair and injuries, and eventually earned him the nickname “Spark Ranger”, according to Guinness World Records. A lightning strike is usually a terrifying, potentially fatal encounter. For Roy Sullivan, it became an extraordinary recurring experience.
Sullivan’s first brush with lightning came in April 1942, when he was working at Shenandoah National Park in Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains. For 27 years after the first incident, Sullivan reportedly went without another strike. That changed in July 1969, when he was driving his truck along a mountain road during a storm. The following year, in July 1970, lightning struck him while he was tending to his garden. In April 1972, another strike hit while he was working inside a park guardhouse. He carried water with him after the incident in which his hair caught fire, according to a 2013 Washington Post profile. The sixth incident occurred on June 5, 1976, while Sullivan was walking along a trail.
He was at a fire lookout tower when a storm set the structure ablaze. As he attempted to escape, lightning struck him in the right leg. The bolt left a scorch mark, tore through his boot and damaged the nail on his big toe. Lightning struck trees nearby before travelling through the vehicle’s open windows. Sullivan was knocked unconscious, his eyebrows were burned and his wristwatch was damaged. The bolt reportedly burned his left shoulder and threw him off his feet. His hair caught fire, forcing him to put it out with water. By then, Sullivan had begun taking precautions. But avoiding storms and taking shelter did not appear to end his extraordinary run of misfortune. He suffered an ankle injury and his hair was burned once more. Five months later, he retired from the National Park Service. He and his wife moved to a property near Waynesboro, Virginia, where he installed copper lightning rods around his home, including on the trailer, television antenna and nearby trees. Still, the precautions did not bring his encounters to an end.
His family doctor and a former park superintendent were said to have verified injuries, though not necessarily the lightning strikes themselves. The report found that newspaper accounts and statements from people who knew Sullivan offered some support for his injuries. A retired National Park Service historian interviewed for the report expressed confidence in the Guinness record, while others who knew Sullivan were more cautious.
A 2013 investigation by The Washington Post noted that none of the seven strikes was directly witnessed by another person. Sullivan’s record is recognised by Guinness World Records, but the details of his encounters have also attracted questions. His wife and fellow rangers were not present for the incidents, and there was no medical record independently confirming every strike.