The assassination of Ignacio Ellacuría and seven others at the Universidad Centroamericana José Simeon Cañas (UCA) in San Salvador in 1989 has had a deep and profound impact on the world-wide Jesuit community and the Catholic Church. His philosophy and theology of liberation have been carefully studied, as has his vision and operation of the UCA which was rooted in the preferential option for the poor. This preferential option for the poor at UCA was practised at a time of extreme oppression of the ordinary people and during a brutal civil war in El Salvador. This article provides a concise examination of his life, work and vision for the university and the lasting influence of his ideas on Jesuit thinking on social justice, social outreach and the Catholic university.