Nash met his future wife in math class

If not for his wife, Alicia Larde, the life of John Nash—talented mathematician, troubled schizophrenic, and eventual winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics—might have taken a far harsher turn. The book A Beautiful Mind's author, Sylvia Nasar, thinks Nash's selection of Larde demonstrated that his intelligence went beyond mathematics. She claims that it was genius on Nash's part to pick a lady who would be so crucial to his survival.

As a fresh-faced M.I.T. student enthralled by a famous lecturer, Alicia first came into Nash's life. Alicia can recall her initial encounter with Nash. He was like the fair-haired boy of the math department, she remarked as she entered the room, and I thought he was extremely attractive. He wasn't as eager to notice her, but he did. Later in life, John acknowledged, "She was one of the few girls that caught my eye." This is one of the interesting facts about John Nash.

Alicia was stunningly attractive, feminine, and well-groomed. She wore voluminous skirts and really high heels. She was clever, socially astute, and intellectually keen. Joyce Davis, Alicia's classmate, referred to the college Alicia as "an El Salvadoran princess with a feeling of noblesse obligation," according to author Sylvia Nash.

Advanced Calculus for Engineers was where John and Alicia first met, but they only started dating after Nash ran into Alicia at the university's music library, where she worked. Nasar argues that the two had much more in common than just an attraction because they were both close to their moms, came from homes where intelligence and social standing were valued highly and were both outsiders. These attractions led to the couple's 1957 marriage.