Léo was born in Saint-André of Madawaska and is the 26th child of Frédérick Poitras and Alice Lévesque. He was a student at the Academy of Hôtel-Dieu in Saint-Basile, from 1936 to 1940. Léo married Rita Cyr in 1948 and they had thirteen children. They all have university degrees. In the beginning Léo taught for a while and then he cultivated his two hundred and fifty acres of land. Later he returned to his studies and obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1971 and a Bachelor of Education in 1973. He taught until 1982 and then retired. In collaboration with his eldest son Jean-Guy, he published Répertoires généalogiques des Poitras, des Levesque et des Cyr. Photo as a Bachelor of Arts Graduate in 1971.