The 98-year-old man leaned forward in his wheelchair and slowly poured a glass of champagne onto the hull of the newest Bates rowing shell. In a soft but steady voice, he said, “I christen thee Ralph ...

Instead, their father, Arthur Martin, took them out in newfangled fiberglass kayaks he designed and built himself. It was the early 1950s, when the only kayaks most people had seen were those paddled ...