Todorovich Family Papers, 1929-1989

Ljubica Todorovich, nee Pekić, (1919 - 2016), American painter, was born in Pennsylvania. Both her parents, Branko and Anka Pekić were from Serbia, and she always considered Serbia her spiritual homeland. Her uncle, Count Čedomilj (Cheda) Mijatović was a leading statesman and author. The family was very close to Nikola Tesla.

Ljubica studied painting at Carnegie Mellon Institute, SUNY Purchase and The National Academy of Art. Her award-winning work has been widely exhibited in New York, Florida and Europe. She was an elected member of the London-based society of Serbian Writers and Artists Abroad.

Ljubica was active in public service since World War II. She was a founding director of the Njegos Endowment for Serbian Studies at Columbia University. At the end of World War II, she was in the Field Service Division of UNRRA and helped facilitate the movement of over two thousand people to overseas posts. Before this, she worked with Ruth Mitchell, sister of General Billy Mitchell, raising funds for Serbian orphans. After her marriage to Boris Todorovich, she remained active in Serbian affairs. She played a key role in the preparation of her husband's memoirs of his World War II experiences, Last Words, which was published by Walker & Company in 1989. She then had his WW II diaries published in Belgrade, Serbia under the title of Final Report.

In 1947, she married Boris Todorovich (1913-1984), former captain of the Royal Yugoslav Army during the Axis invasion of Yugoslavia. Captured by the Nazis in 1941, he managed to escape and joined forces with General Mihailović in Nazi-occupied Serbia as a liaison to the Allied Mission. Mihailović later sent him to Washington D.C., where Todorovich became an embassy military attache until 1945. He never returned to his homeland and settled in the United States. A recipient of the National Sales Achievement Award sixteen times and the National Quality Award twenty-two times, Boris was a member of the New York Estate Planning Council, the American Society of Chartered Life Underwriters. He founded and operated Boris Todorovich Consultants, Inc, a company engaged in estate and business planning. He also found time to be an author, lecturer, and educator.