The man who has buried his murdered daughter and his cancer-stricken wife said the fire is nothing in comparison.

Even on the night of the fire, he kept his composure in order to save his three cats, two dogs, three turkeys and dozens of chickens that were in pens behind the burning house. One of his dogs, Rosebud, who is named after Tara Rose, was already with Munsey. Luckily, the only injury of the night was singed tail feathers on one hen.

Munsey has experienced the swings of ups and downs. He said he joined the Air Force in 1968, becoming a middleweight boxer while stationed in Tucson, Ariz. Later, while serving in Thailand, he said he defeated a native kickboxing champion. He can still recount how he delivered the winning blow.

Once he returned from Southeast Asia, Munsey became one of the first men to graduate from what was then Radford College. Throughout the years, he said, he’s been a coal miner, a farmer, a baseball player for the Roanoke Stars, has built water towers and is now doing excavation work at Ingles Farm in Radford and teaching children services at a local church every other week.

Munsey has a 28-year-old son, D.D., who lives in Radford. Since the fire, he has been living with D.D. and daughter-in-law, B.J.