Samuel Kaye, the last owner of Wolfie’s Restaurant at 1 Lincoln Rd., Miami Beach, died Sunday at 94, a late-in-life convert to healthy eating who “was very active at the gym working off the corned beef,’’ said Patricia Kaye, one of his two daughters.

Wolfie’s specialized in artery-clogging “Jewish soul food’’ like pastrami and blintzes, chopped liver and cheesecake — and Kaye ate a lot of it. It caught up with him when he was 82, and he had to undergo heart bypass surgery.

After that, he changed his ways, which increased his quality of life, said daughter Andrea Kaye, although “there might have been some cheesecake involved, or a hot dog’’ from time to time.

Born Dec. 16, 1917, in New York, Kaye lived with Harriet Drettler Kaye, his wife of 63 years, in Aventura. He died of natural causes at Aventura Hospital.

A U.S. Army veteran, Kaye earned a bachelor’s degree from Brooklyn College and studied dentistry at New York University. He met his future wife at a dance in Brooklyn, and married her in 1949.

Kaye had an import/export business in New York and travelled a lot to South and Central America, said Andrea, of Los Angeles.

“He was very entrepreneurial,’’ she said, and founded A1 Answering Service after moving the family to Miami Beach in 1957. He ran six branches in Miami-Dade County from an office near the University of Miami.

In 1962, he bought the restaurant at Lincoln Road and Collins Avenue. Kaye had never run a restaurant “but he could be in diversified businesses,’’ Andrea said. “He had a lot of curiosity and was so adept at multitasking’’ that he succeeded.

She said her father “loved eating there,’’ and brought food home for the family.

“You didn’t even know it was bad for you.’’

Kaye worked in every part of the restaurant, from the kitchen to the front door.

“He was everywhere, running around, checking on the baker, tasting the soup,’’ said Patricia, of New York.

Before he sold out in the mid-1980s and a Denny’s moved in, Kaye adapted the menu to “the trends of the day,’’ Andrea said, although he “kept it traditional. When you sat down, you got a basket of rolls and metal bowls of pickled green tomatoes, sauerkraut and pickles. The sandwiches were huge.’’

Graveside funeral services are set for 11 a.m. Tuesday at Temple Beth El Memorial Gardens, 4900 Old Griffin Rd., Davie.