Being struck by lightning once is incredibly rare. Surviving it seven times is almost impossible. Yet that’s exactly what happened to Roy Cleveland Sullivan, a park ranger at Shenandoah National Park, between 1942 and 1977.

Sullivan’s first documented strike occurred while he was taking shelter in a fire lookout tower. Over the next 35 years, lightning found him again and again under remarkably different circumstances—while driving his truck, patrolling the park, fishing, and even walking outdoors. One strike set his hair on fire, forcing him to keep a bottle of water in his vehicle afterward in case it happened again. Another burned his shoulder, another injured his ankle, and another left severe burns across his chest.

His astonishing survival earned him a place in Guinness World Records as the person known to have survived the most lightning strikes. The odds of a single individual being struck seven times are so small that no precise probability can be calculated, making his experience one of the most extraordinary natural events ever documented.

Ironically, Sullivan’s life did not end because of lightning. He died in 1983 at the age of 71 from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Despite that tragic ending, his name remains forever linked to one of nature’s most astonishing and scientifically documented records.