A remembrance is set Sunday for Kislak Organization chairman Jay I. Kislak, who got his first real estate license in high school and went on to lead the Miami Lakes-based real estate investment and brokerage company.

The Hoboken, New Jersey, native died at his Miami home on Wednesday at 96. A celebration of life will be held at 4 p.m. Sunday at Temple Beth Am at 5950 N. Kendall Drive in Pinecrest.

In the early 1950s, Kislak moved his family to Miami, establishing what would become one of the nation's largest privately held mortgage banks, originating and servicing loans nationwide for more than 40 years.

He held leadership roles in groups ranging from the Mortgage Bankers Association to the State Department's cultural property advisory committee, St. Augustine 450th anniversary federal commission and the National Park Foundation.

Kislak and his wife Jean founded the Kislak Foundation for the conservation and study of materials from the early Americas. In 2004, Kislak donated more than 4,000 items from the collection to the Library of Congress, including the first printed navigational map of the world made in c

Kislak is survived by his wife, three children, a stepdaughter, five grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.