[1] Vital Lahaye was born on 17 January 1937 in Chassepierre, a small village on the banks of the Semois in the province of Luxembourg, fifth in a family of seven children.
Faced with the events of that period (the end of the Belgian colonization in the Congo, the war in Algeria and the denunciation of torture by Henri Alleg), he approached the communist route and met several political leaders from Liège.
In 1971, he began teaching in Algeria at Sour El-Ghozlane High School (Wilaya de Bouira) where Conrad Detrez is also a teacher.
In 1973, the year of his son Ugo's birth, he returned to Belgium where he taught until 1993 in Libramont, Bastogne and the Royal Athenaeum of Bertrix.
After his retirement in 1993, Vital Lahaye settled in Liège, in the cosmopolitan neighborhood of Coronmeuse, with his son who died in an accident in June 1995.