Between 1942 and 1977, ranger Roy Cleveland Sullivan of Shenandoah National Park in Virginia was struck by lightning seven times. He survived every hit. Guinness World Records recognizes him as the person struck more recorded times than any other human.
The first time, he hid in a fire lookout tower that had no lightning rod. He said fire was jumping all over the place inside.
Another strike caught him driving his pickup on a mountain road. That bolt burned off his eyebrows.
After the fourth strike set his hair on fire, fear changed his daily life. He began to believe some force was trying to destroy him.
How did he meet the next storms?
For months, when a storm caught him at the wheel, he pulled over and lay on the front seat until it passed.
The last lightning hit him while he was fishing. It singed his hair and burned his chest and stomach.
The ordeal did not stop there.
Heading for his car, he met a bear that tried to steal his trout. Sullivan struck it with a branch. He said it was the twenty-second time he had hit a bear with a stick.
Lightning left the burns.
The bear did not take the fish without a fight.
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