Years later, after the boys had grown into men, Mr. Baker, 26, found himself in Boston, where he was pursuing a master’s degree, depressed and worried that he was losing his
passion for a career in medicine. He called Mr. Arbery, who had always felt much more like a brother, back in Brunswick. “When times get hard,” Mr. Arbery would tell him, “you’ve got to lean on chaos and come through a champion.”