Matchmaker spots the perfect girl

LEFT: John and Barbara Wilson during their 1987 graduation. ABOVE: The Wilsons with daughters Valerie (left) and Julia.

One day during winter quarter 1985, John Wilson's friend stormed into his residence hall room with a discovery that would change John's life.

"I just met this girl! You have to meet her! If you were a girl, you would be her!" his matchmaking buddy exclaimed.

After hearing about the woman with a personality similar to his own, John began sneaking glances at Barbara Alden across the dining room in Jefferson Hall. But he couldn't gather up the nerve to talk to her.

Several weeks later, Barbara, who like John was a journalism major, attended a Jobs in Journalism seminar and casually sat down next to him. "That was merely a coincidence," she says. "A mutual friend sitting on the other side of him introduced us."

The rest, as they say, is history. Their first date included dinner at the restaurant CJ's and the movie "Witness."

"He treated me really well," Barbara says. "I hadn't had a formal date in college, and I was blown away. We found we had a lot in common over dinner."

Despite their immediate attraction, diving into a serious relationship wasn't their first inclination. Like Barbara, John had sworn off dating and was focused on his studies. But after that initial date, there was no doubt there'd be a second. "Our first date was just really natural," he says.

Both adopted the attitude that whatever happened, happened. And a lot happened: study dates, pizza dinners, football games and trips to Parkersburg for fast food.

They married in 1988, a year after graduation. Their first child, Valerie, was born in 1995, and another daughter, Julia, arrived in 1999. They now live in Orlando, where John produces the 11 p.m. news for an NBC affiliate and Barbara does freelance writing and editing.

"It's fair to say," she says, "we are living happily ever after."