The prominent burn mark on his hat is a result of one of the many lightening strikes he suffered in his lifetime.

Roy Cleveland Sullivan, Sr. 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 (in the distance). The Chief said, 'I'll see you later.'"

He was actually struck by lightning 8 times. 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. His wife was also struck by lightning when they were both out hanging up clothes together in their back yard.

It’s said that seven is a lucky number, but Roy Sullivan, a.k.a. the “Spark Ranger,” probably would have disagreed. The Shenandoah National Park ranger was apparently a natural conductor of electricity, and was struck by lightning a staggering number of times. Though some doubt Sullivan's stories—no one ever witnessed any of the strikes, only the aftermath—Guinness World Records was able to verify them enough to award the ranger the "Most lightning strikes survived" title. Wiki claims that they WERE all documented: All seven strikes were documented by the superintendent of Shenandoah National Park, R. Taylor Hoskins, and were verified by doctors.
Here are his stories:

Strike 1

It was April, 1942, and Sullivan had only been with the park service for about six years. He was stationed at the brand-new Miller’s Head fire tower when a storm blew in. The tower was so new lightning rods hadn’t been installed yet, and it ended up being struck seven or eight times. Sullivan decided to get the heck out of there, but only made it a few feet away before the lightning found him. “It burned a half-inch strip all the way down my right leg, and knocked my big toenail off,” he said. “My boot was full of blood, and it ran out through a hole in the sole.”

Strike 2

Nearly three decades later, in 1969, Sullivan was driving a park truck when lightning struck two trees on one side of the road, then jumped to another tree on the other side. Sullivan’s truck was in the middle, with both windows rolled down. As a result, the ranger lost consciousness, and very nearly drove his truck off the edge of a cliff. When he came to, Sullivan was missing his eyebrows and eyelashes.

Strike 3

The third strike, a year later, happened while Sullivan was off-duty. He was tending to his garden at home when lightning hit a nearby transformer and jumped to his shoulder, knocking him down and burning him lightly.

Strike 4

Number four set poor Sullivan on fire. “There was a gentle rain, but no thunder, until just one big clap, the loudest thing I ever heard,” he said. “When my ears stopped ringing, I heard something sizzling. It was my hair on fire. The flames were up six inches.” Luckily, he had been registering people at a camping station, so he was able to use wet paper towels from a nearby bathroom to smother the flames.

Strike 5

August 7, 1973, brought the fifth strike. Again, Sullivan was in a park truck, and saw storm clouds coming. All too aware of his track record, the ranger tried to outrun the lightning. Once he felt he was out of harm’s way, Sullivan stopped to have a look. Big mistake. “I actually saw the lightning shoot out of the cloud this time, and it was coming straight for me,” he said. It even knocked off one of his shoes, leaving the lace tied.

Strike 6

Sullivan was walking along a park trail in 1976 when he was struck a sixth time. It was the final straw for the Spark Ranger—he retired five months later.

Strike 7

Unfortunately, the lightning found him anyway. On June 25, 1977, Sullivan was trout fishing when the hair on his arms bristled. This strike to the head burned his chest and stomach and caused hearing loss in one ear. To top off Lucky Seven, Sullivan ran into a black bear on the way back to his car.

In case you’re wondering, the odds of getting struck by lightning are about one in 280,000,000. The odds of getting struck by lightning seven times are 4.15 in 100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.

When Sullivan did pass away, it was a bullet, not a bolt, that did him in. 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.

Roy G. Sullivan Grave. June 12, 2021. GPS: 38.239528, -78.862008 Photo by Richard Finkelstein