Sullivan Roy Cleveland Sullivan
There was good reason for this eccentric arrangement; the trailer owner, retired Shenandoah Park Ranger Roy C. Sullivan, had already been struck by lightning seven times, and still had one more to go, earning a dubious world record that stands today.
"Some people are allergic to flowers," Sullivan told a Waynesboro News-Virginian reporter in June, 1977, "but I'm allergic to lightning."
Born February, 1912 in Greene County, Sullivan's legacy began in the 1920s. As he helped his father cut wheat, lightning struck his scythe, knocking him to the ground and setting the field on fire.
He had no idea what was still to come.
© Findagrave.comRoy Sullivan’s grave in Augusta County.
In the early 1930s, Sullivan joined the Civilian Conservation Corps creating the Shenandoah National Park. Hired to the fire patrol in 1940, Sullivan was responsible for monitoring Rockfish Gap north to Swift Run Gap.
In April, 1942, while manning the Miller's Head Overlook fire tower, a vicious storm blew in and according to Sullivan "... fire was jumping all over the place." He climbed down and ran, but was immediately struck, searing a scar down his right leg and blowing the nail off his big toe.
From 1942 to 1969, Sullivan went through three wives but was left alone by Mother Nature. Then in July, as he drove south on the Skyline Drive, lightning struck through the open windows of his truck. Knocked unconscious, with most of his hair and eyebrows burned away and his wristwatch fried, his truck rolled to a stop at the edge of a very deep ditch.
One year later, Sullivan and his fourth wife Pat were tending garden when lightning suddenly streaked out of a clear sky, exploding a pole transformer then striking his left shoulder.
On April 16, 1972, Sullivan was registering visitors in a guardhouse near Loft Mountain campground when a sudden bolt destroyed an electric panel box beside him. Quickly noticing his hair was on fire, he extinguished the blaze with wet paper towels and drove himself to Waynesboro Community Hospital.
Strike #5 occurred three weeks later as he tried to outrace a storm on the Skyline Drive. Thinking he was safe and emerging from his truck, he actually saw the bolt shoot out, then hit him in the face, again setting his hair on fire and knocking off his left shoe.
A restaurant on Loft Mountain would not let him inside if it was overcast. One day he was walking with the Chief Ranger when they saw lightning way off in the distance. The chief said "I'll see you later, Roy."
On June 5, 1976, Sullivan got struck for the sixth time as he walked on Sawmill Shelter Trail, only a mile from where he had been struck in 1969.
Sullivan retired from the Park Service November, 1976, but his bad luck was not over. While trout fishing June 25, 1977, he took another sudden bolt to the head which blew him out of his boat. He sustained burns to his upper body and clothing and hearing loss in one ear. Then, as he scrambled dazed to his car, he had to beat away a black bear that was stealing the trout on his line.
"I do not think God is behind this," Sullivan told a reporter in 1972. "If he were, the first lightning strike would have been enough."
The Guinness Book of World Records stated Sullivan was officially stuck seven times, but unofficially, he was struck eight - he never counted the 1920s scythe strike, as he could not prove it. The last seven strikes were verified by Park Director Taylor Hoskins.
Around 3:00 a.m. on Sept. 28, 1983, Sullivan died suddenly not from a lightning bolt but from a single .22 caliber bullet through his head. Rumors spread that Pat shot her husband, but it was determined Sullivan killed himself.
Roy Sullivan, the human lightning rod, is buried in Edgewood Cemetery near Weyers Cave. His headstone reads "We loved you, but God loved you more."
He must have been too well grounded.
;-D
R.C.