Roy Sullivan and his seven time affair with lightning
Who was Roy Sullivan?
Roy Sullivan lived a life defined by chance, endurance, and fear. Born in 1912, Sullivan grew up in Virginia and eventually found steady work as a park ranger at Shenandoah National Park. His job kept him outdoors in all conditions, including violent mountain storms. At first, lightning was simply a hazard of the profession. Over time, it became something else entirely.
The First Lightning Strike
The first lightning strike occurred in April of 1942 while Sullivan worked in a fire lookout tower. The lookout tower was hit between 6 and 8 times by lightning. With no lightning rod, it was only a matter of time before tragedy struck. The last hit caught various parts of the tower on fire. Sullivan panicked and decided to make a break for it. A few feet from the tower, another bolt of lightning caught the young man, burning a half-inch strip down his right leg, through one of his toes, and escaped by making a hole in his shoe. At the time, the incident felt like a terrible fluke—rare, but explainable.
The Second lightning Strike
Nearly thirty years later, lightning struck again. In 1969, Sullivan was driving through the park when a bolt hit a nearby tree, deflected off of it, and entered through the open window of his vehicle. It struck his shoulder, burned off his eyebrow, and set his hair on fire. Sullivan was knocked unconscious as the truck rolled towards a cliff edge before coming to a stop. He escaped the truck alive, shaken but standing. The odds were already shrinking.
The Third Lightning Strike
In 1970, lightning found him in his own yard. A nearby strike hit a power transformer and then arced into his body, burning his shoulder and rattling his nerves. Neighbors began to take notice. Sullivan did too. Storms no longer felt random.
The Fourth Lightning Strike
The fourth strike came in 1972 while he was on duty. Lightning went into the ranger station, hit his head, igniting his hair once again. He ran to the bathroom and extinguished the flames himself. By then, coincidence was no longer convincing. For months after, whenever he was caught in a storm while driving his truck, he would pull over and lie down on the front seat until the storm passed. He firmly believed that he would somehow attract lightning even if he stood in a crowd of people. From the fourth strike on, Sullivan carried a can of water with him in case his hair was set on fire.
The Fifth Lightning Strike
In 1973, Sullivan saw a storm cloud forming and drove away quickly. He would later say that the cloud appeared to be following him. A safe distance away now, Sullivan stopped the truck and got out. Lightning struck Sullivan for the fifth time as he reportedly watched it travel down his left arm and left leg, before knocking off his shoe. It then crossed over to his right leg just below the knee. Still conscious, Sullivan crawled to his truck and poured the can of water over his head to extinguish the fire.
The Sixth Lightning Strike
The sixth strike occurred in 1976 during another thunderstorm. Details were less dramatic, but the impact was no less real. By this point, Sullivan lived in constant anxiety. Storm clouds triggered panic. Shelter never felt safe. He believed lightning was tracking him. He escaped with a sprained ankle and smoldering head.
The Seventh Lightning Strike
In 1977, lightning struck for the seventh and final time while Sullivan fished in a freshwater pool. The lightning hit the top of his head, set his hair on fire, traveled down, and burnt his chest and stomach. Medical professionals were stunned. Scientists took notice. The Guinness World Records eventually recognized him as the person struck by lightning more times than anyone in recorded history. After being struck, Sullivan turned the boat towards his car when he noticed a bear approaching the water. He claimed that this was the twenty-second time he had to hit a bear with a stick in his lifetime.
After Retirement
Survival of these lightning strikes came at a heavy cost. Sullivan became increasingly withdrawn and paranoid. He believed storms followed him wherever he went. Some people avoided standing near him during bad weather. Others joked. Sullivan did not.
In 1983, at the age of 71, Roy Sullivan died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The man who survived seven lightning strikes could not outrun his own despair. His death remains a somber reminder that endurance does not always bring peace.
Today, Roy Sullivan’s story endures as one of the strangest in modern history. Seven lightning strikes. One lifetime. A legacy shaped not just by survival, but by the unseen toll of living under constant threat from the sky.
Side Note
Sullivan himself claimed that he was actually struck eight times. When he was a child, he was helping his father out in the wheat fields. A lightning bolt hit the blade of the scythe he was using. Since he couldn’t prove it, it couldn’t go into the record books.
Sullivan’s wife was also struck once, when she was taking down laundry from a clothes line. She wasn’t hurt, and luckily, Roy was standing right next to her. That event changed things in their marriage as he was never comfortable being near his family for fear that they could be hurt.
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