Irvin Raveneau

Seventy four year old Irvin Raveneau is a veteran, a retired Margate corrections officer, and a father. Originally from Castries St. Lucia,  Raveneau’s mother sent him and his four siblings to live  in St.Thomas U.S. Virgin Islands.

At the age of twenty-one, with a baby on the way, he enlisted in the army in order to fight in the Vietnam War. After four years of fighting he moved to Margate Florida, where he landed a job as a Margate corrections officer. He worked eight hours a day on seven day shifts, followed by only three days off. After fifteen years, he was ready to retire.

Recently he found out that he has a son who had been looking for him for more than two years, only to find out that they live ten minutes away.

Raveneau always puts family first. He smiles when he thinks about his motto. 

“Family is like oxygen, without them I can not live,” he said.