Born on September 25, 1920, the son of Inès Auguste and Alfred Lebon, Serge grew up in Cap-Haitien, Haiti. He obtained his High School Diploma at Saint Louis de Gonzague in Port-au-Prince where he distinguished himself as a very bright student and a talented trumpetist playing in the marching band of this institution. He co-founded the Issa El Saieh orchestra while he was still a law student at the Faculté de Droit de Port-au-Prince, where he obtained his law degree in 1943. He pursued his studies at L’Ecole des Sciences Appliquées and obtained his Bachelor in Architecture in 1945.
Profoundly determined, enthusiastic and very creative, he founded his own architectural firm in 1952. His works, in his birthplace of Cap-Haitien, Port-au-Prince, including numerous cities and villages in Haiti, are countless as one can imagine and cannot be listed in their entirety. However, we would like to mention in particular l’École des Sœurs de Ste-Croix, the chapel and auditorium of College Notre Dame du Perpétuel Secours du Cap-Haitien, public schools in Acul du Nord, Grande Rivière du Nord, Dérac, Fort-Liberté, and des Frères de Pétion-Ville. His professionalism, integrity and exceptional abilities as an engineer allowed him to build several buildings at the complete satisfaction of all his clients who were all from different nationalities —Haitian, French, Italian, German and Canadian. Unfortunately, as the political situation of our country worsened, he left abruptly. He lost all his investments leaving a colossal debt behind him. “Ingénieur Lebon”, as he was called was known to be a man of integrity, paid all his creditors to the last cent while he was working abroad.
He also loved photography. In Haiti, he had built a dark room to develop the pictures he had taken. In New York, he took dance classes at the prestigious Fred Astaire School where as a magnificent dancer, he won the first prize during one contest there. He took care of his body in exercising every day religiously and practicing boxing. He loved his family deeply. As a caring father, he worried about the future of his children. No birthday was forgotten—whether it was his children’s, brothers’, sisters’, grandchildren’s and other family members’. Everyone would receive a birthday card with warm wishes.
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