After the war, Ruth volunteered to work with the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) and was sent to Belgrade to work as a secretary in 1946. It was here that she met Svetozar, who had been hired by UNRRA to work in the art department. When they met, they were unable to speak to each other in a common language but Svetozar soon communicated what he was feeling. "Me Toza" (a family nickname), "you Jane" seemed to say it all, and soon the young Serb and the American girl were planning a future together.

As Shakespeare observed, "the course of true love never does run smooth" and it took Svetozar and Ruth seven years to finally be together. The first hurdle was to get Svetozar out of communist Yugoslavia. After approaching the Ministry of the Interior for a visa for Svetozar to enter the US, Ruth was expelled from Yugoslavia and Svetozar came under suspicion from the government. He was then hired to work in the art department of the prestigious national magazine, Jugoslavia, and Ruth went home to the States. For many, these events might have signaled the end, but Svetozar and Ruth were determined, and kept their long distance relationship very much alive.

During their separation they developed some very creative and clandestine communications techniques. Notes went back and forth between them stuffed in pill bottles and hidden under watercolor paintings. Ruth sent carefully disguised supplies as the authorities watched Svetozar closely. Finally, they devised what seemed to be a feasible escape plan. Ruth sent Svetozar a small inflatable boat that he would use to go to Italy, where Ruth would be waiting for him. When the craft was discovered and confiscated, Svetozar stole a navy boat and headed for Bari, Italy, a ninety minute trip. About halfway across the Adriatic, the engine died and Svetozar worked frantically to fix it. One hour later, the motor roared to life just as a navy plane spotted him and fired warning shots into the water. As the Italian shoreline came into view, a Yugoslav navy patrol boat pulled alongside and took Svetozar into custody. Svetozar was again arrested and taken to prison, this time by the government he had just defended in WWII. Ruth waited helplessly. When she did not hear from him she contacted his mother to inform her that the escape had failed.

With Ruth out of the country, the formidable task of getting Svetozar released fell to his mother. After six months, she prevailed, and Svetozar went back to work for Jugoslavia magazine. Then, with no warning, the government inexplicably relaxed its vigil and Svetozar was granted an artist's visa to go to Paris as the magazine's art editor. Thus, in late 1952, Svetozar arrived in Paris, the city of artists, and was transformed from political prisoner to free citizen in one day. His sense of freedom left him breathless and he spent days mesmerized by the streets and the free life around him. He could do what he wanted; no more sneaking around and no more secret police. He wrote to Ruth and waited. She came as fast as she could; their separation was over.

At last, news came that the Embassy would allow the couple to marry. They moved back to France, and in early 1955 they were wed. Galerie Marseilles gave Svetozar a one-man show and his work was exhibited in a "Discoveries" show, and featured in Realities magazine as a "young discovery." Then, after filing thirty-three documents and paying fifteen thousand francs to the French, Svetozar was given his papers to enter the US. They waited for places on the ship, and during their last six months in Europe, the couple studied filigree, acquiring yet another technique.

In 1955, they arrived in New York and settled in Rochester where they continued their studies in metalsmithing at the School for American Craftsmen at the Rochester Institute of Technology. They learned precision casting from their dentist and Svetozar won several awards for his painting. He received an appointment to teach painting, drawing, and design at the School for American Craftsmen in 1955 and, in 1958, he began teaching metalwork at the Memorial Art Gallery, University of Rochester, where Ruth was also teaching. In Rochester, they found an ideal life. Their colleagues, most of whom became life-long friends, were a group of like-minded craftsmen. By 1959, they had two children and decided to move to California.

In Encinitas, Ruth and Svetozar shared their family, a studio where their art took form, and a driving need to explore the natural world and mine its secrets. Next to their small wood and concrete house they built a studio where they could create their art, often in the company of their daughters Jeanie and Saika. The studio quickly filled with equipment for working in all the media they explored.

In 1961, Svetozar taught metalwork at the University of Arizona in Tucson where he met Charles Loloma, and later, Verma, Nequatewa, Charles' niece. They began a long friendship which brought him to their Hopi Reservation many times to exchange metalworking techniques. Svetozar also taught briefly at San Diego State University and in 1966 established bronze casting as a course there. As Svetozar's career as a designer-craftsman became more demanding, he stopped teaching at SDSU. He later taught a jewelry casting class at Palomar College in the early 1970s.

The life that these two had worked so hard to have together, ended too soon when Ruth died in 1975 at the age of 54. The creative force that grew from their partnership continued to inform Svetozar's work. In 1985, Svetozar was honored as one of "California's Living Treasures." He passed away at age 80 in 1998. During their prolific career, the Radakovich's work was exhibited both nationally and internationally. Today, this exquisite work endures with individual owners, permanent collections, and retrospectives such as this.