Roy Cleveland Sullivan was a United States park ranger in Shenandoah National Park in
Virginia.
Between 1942 and 1977, Sullivan was hit by lightning on seven different occasions and
survived all of them.
For this reason, he gained a nickname "Human Lightning Conductor" or "Human Lightning Rod".
Sullivan is recognized by Guinness World Records as the person struck by lightning more recorded
times than any other human being.
He died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound at the age of 71 over an unrequited love.
Personal life Sullivan was born in Greene County, Virginia
on February 7, 1912.
He started working as a ranger in Shenandoah National Park in 1936.
Sullivan was described as a brawny man with a broad, rugged face, who resembled the actor
Gene Hackman.
He was avoided by people later in life because of their fear of being hit by lightning, and
this saddened him.
He once recalled "For instance, I was walking with the Chief Ranger one day when lightning
struck way off.
The Chief said, 'I'll see you later.'"
On September 28, 1983, Sullivan died at the age of 71 from self-inflicted gunshot wound
in the stomach.
Two of his ranger hats are on display at two Guinness World Exhibit Halls in New York City
and South Carolina.
Seven strikes The first documented lightning strike of Sullivan
occurred in April 1942.
He was hiding from a thunderstorm in a fire lookout tower.
The tower was newly built and had no lightning rod at the time; it was hit seven or eight
times.
Inside the tower, "fire was jumping all over the place".
Sullivan ran out and just a few feet away received what he considered to be his worst
lightning strike.
It burned a half-inch strip all along his right leg, hit his toe, and left a hole in
his shoe.
He was hit again in July 1969.
Unusually, he was hit while in his truck, driving on a mountain road—the metal body
of a vehicle normally protects people in cases such as this by acting as a Faraday cage.
The lightning first hit nearby trees and was deflected into the open window of the truck.
The strike knocked Sullivan unconscious and burned off his eyebrows, eyelashes, and most
of his hair.
The uncontrolled truck kept moving until it stopped near a cliff edge.
In 1970, Sullivan was struck while in his front yard.
The lightning hit a nearby power transformer and from there jumped to his left shoulder,
searing it.
In 1972, Sullivan was working inside a ranger station in Shenandoah National Park when another
strike occurred.
It set his hair on fire; he tried to smother the flames with his jacket.
He then rushed to the restroom, but couldn't fit under the water tap and so used a wet
towel instead.
Although he never was a fearful man, after the fourth strike he began to believe that
some force was trying to destroy him and he acquired a fear of death.
For months, 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 also began to carry a can of water with him and believed that he would somehow attract
lightning even if he stood in a crowd of people.
On August 7, 1973, while he was out on patrol in the park, Sullivan saw a storm cloud forming
and drove away quickly.
But the cloud, he said later, seemed to be following him.
When he finally thought he had outrun it, he decided it was safe to leave his truck.
Soon after, he was struck by a lightning bolt.
Sullivan stated that he actually saw the bolt that hit him.
The lightning set his hair on fire, moved down his left arm and left leg and knocked
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, which he always
kept there, over his head.
The next strike, on June 5, 1976, injured his ankle.
It was reported that he saw a cloud, thought that it was following him, tried to run away,
but was struck anyway.
On Saturday morning, June 25, 1977, Sullivan was struck while fishing in a freshwater pool.
The lightning hit the top of his head, singed his hair, traveled down, and burnt his chest
and stomach.
Sullivan turned to his car when something unexpected occurred — a bear approached
the pond and tried to steal trout from his fishing line.
Sullivan had the strength and courage to strike the bear with a tree branch.
He claimed that this was the twenty-second time he hit a bear with a stick in his lifetime.
All seven strikes were documented by the superintendent of Shenandoah National Park, R. Taylor Hoskins,
and were verified by doctors.
Sullivan himself recalled that the first time he was struck by lightning was not in 1942
but much earlier.
When he was a child, he was helping his father to cut wheat in a field, when a thunderbolt
struck the blade of his scythe without injuring him.
But because he could not prove the fact later, he never claimed it.
Sullivan's wife was also struck once, when a storm suddenly arrived as she was out hanging
clothes in their back yard.
Her husband was helping her at the time, but escaped unharmed.
Statistics
The odds of being struck by lightning for a person over the period of 80 years have
been roughly estimated as 1:10000.
If the lightning strikes were independent events, the probability of being hit seven
times would be 1:100007 = 1:1028.
These numbers do not quite apply to Sullivan, however, who by the nature of his work was
more exposed to storms than the average person.
Virginia, where he lived, averages 35 to 45 thunderstorm days per year, most of which
fall in June, July, and August.
Between 1959 and 2000 lightning killed 58 people and injured at least 238 people in
Virginia.
In the United States, 3239 people were killed and 13,057 injured by lightning in the same
period.
Most of those were males between 20 and 40 years old caught outdoors.
See also Keraunomedicine, the medical study of lightning
casualties and their treatment Keraunopathy, the study of the effects of
lightning strikes on the human body References
External links Photo of Sullivan: [1]
National Weather Service Lightning Safety Information: [2]