Background
Cali was born Tercio, Colorado in Las Animas County, a coal mining town and raised in New Jersey, the son of an Italian immigrant miner.
Cali was born Tercio, Colorado in Las Animas County, a coal mining town and raised in New Jersey, the son of an Italian immigrant miner.
He graduated from Clifton High School.
He worked his way through college by playing saxophone and clarinet in jazz and swing bands eventually graduating from Indiana University with a Bachelor of Arts in sociology and psychology. Cali initially focused on residential properties building over 5,500 housing units in New Jersey before expanding into the development of commercial buildings in 1969. In 1989, he built the International Financial Center in Jersey City.
He retired in 2000.
In 2008, Cali donated $5 million to Montclair State University to fund a school of music known as the Cali School of Music. Cali served as president of the Office Developers Association of New Jersey.