Man Who Lived the Longest With Bullet in Head Dies at 103

This image shows the bullet that was lodged in an 85-year-old man's head

The man who held the Guinness World Record for living the longest with a bullet in his head has died at age 103.

The Modesto Bee newspaper reports that William Lawlis Pace died in his sleep at a California nursing home on Monday – 94 and a half years after his older brother accidentally shot him with their father’s .22 calibre rifle in 1917.

Pace learned he had been crowned the world record holder in the category of unwanted cranial ammunition acquisition in 2006.

His son told a newspaper last year that doctors in Pace’s native Texas left the bullet in place because they worried that surgery might cause brain damage.

The injury damaged one of his eyes but did not prevent Pace from working as a cemetery custodian.