Alan "Ace" Greenberg, the former chairman and chief executive officer of the collapsed global investment bank Bear Stearns, died on Friday at the age 86 due to cancer complications.

Greenberg was credited for the rise of Bear Stearns from a small bond shop in 1978 into one of the largest securities firms in U.S. in 1993.

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When James Cayne took over as CEO while Greenberg remained as a trader, the firm nearly collapsed due to toxic mortgage bonds exposure.

JPMorgan Chase and Co rescued the firm in 2008 and kept Greenberg as vice chairman.

"It's hard to imagine a financial service industry without Greenberg" said Jamie Dimon, the chief executive officer of JPMorgan, in a statement released for the employees on Friday.

JPMorgan's spokesman said that Greenberg was still reporting in his office at the bank during the week.

Greenberg was born on Sept. 3, 1927 in Kansas. At the age of 6, he moved to Oklahoma City where he was raised by his family. His father, Theodore, owned and operated a woman's clothing store.

He attended Oklahoma University with a football scholarship for his first year. A back injury ended Greenberg's playing career.

He subsequently transferred to the University of Missouri where he graduated in 1949 with a business degree.

Greenberg started his 65 years of career in Wall Street when he entered Bear Stearns as a clerk.

While using pins to locate oil wells on a map, he was noticed by John Slade, the firm's head in arbitrage trading desk department, who coached him until he became the head of the arbitrage department himself.

Greenberg was ranked as chief executive of the firm in 1978. During Bear Stearns' public offering in 1985, he was declared as the chairman.

At the age of 31, he was diagnosed with colon cancer and was called for regular checkups.

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