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Mark is gone.

After his seven-year solitary vigil on a park bench near Friendly and Wendover avenues, Greensboro's most visible but enigmatic homeless person has left.

One Sunday morning in May, according to the owners at the nearby BP, Mark Hoffmann, 51, came in, bought a map of the eastern U.S., and left.

He carried, as usual, his sleeping bag and belongings, and hasn't been seen since, except for a sighting along I-85, walking through Durham.

"We kind of miss him and wonder what happened to him," said Sherri Patrick, manager at Bruegger's Bagels, where Mark bought a coffee and bagel each morning, and sat at the same table near the door. "I hope nobody hurts him."

Suffering from what outreach workers believe to be schizophrenia, Mark appeared at the busy Friendly Center overpass in the spring of 2001. He neither held a sign nor panhandled, but sat on the bench, walked the shopping center, jogged in the park and was gone before each sunset.

Friends at Centenary United Methodist Church, which is next door to the park greenway, learned more about him when he began attending weekly church services that Easter, and rarely missed a Sunday until two weeks ago. He is a graduate of Lehigh University, as the church confirmed with Lehigh's alumni association; he ran track during college, then was a graduate student and accountant at Duke.

Though he was quiet and stayed to himself, Mark was enough of a fixture at the busy intersection near Wesley Long Hospital that he put a face on homelessness for Greensboro residents, many of whom were on a first-name basis with him.

Karen Bridges, president of the county's Homeless Prevention Coalition, recalled speaking to a group of older men at a Civitan meeting.

"Many of the gentlemen in that group knew him, knew he had gone to college," she said. "A lot of times with homelessness, society wants to look past it. People didn't do that with Mark. They reached out to him."

But always on his own terms. Mark isn't one of the "hidden" homeless — the uncounted who camp in the woods or sleep in cars. Nor does he fit the profile of the "chronically" homeless that the county's Housing First initiative seeks to reach — those continuously cycled from jail to ER to homeless shelter to mental health centers.

In fact, other than the drinking fountain next to the bench and the steam grate behind Wesley Long, he used no public services at all. A former Greensboro resident who befriended him, Leigh Johnson, said that Mark would not accept disability or take medication, such as drugs to quell voices and hallucinations.

Likewise, when Glenwood's Servant Center staff tried to find housing for Mark, a fellow church member said, Mark declined to move.

"It's too far from the bench," longtime Centenary church member Clara Ellis recalled him saying.

Nevertheless, help came to him. On bitter cold winter days, Ellis and her husband would persuade Mark to check into Battleground Inn to rest, shower and wash his clothes.

Apart from Mark's failing eyesight, which is the reason he was often seen holding the USA Today sports section close to his face, he is in good physical health from running on the trails, Ellis said. She said she would not expect him to hitchhike or accept a ride from a stranger, and believes he walked to Durham.

Hugo Temoche, an engineer who attends Centenary and travels the state for his job, said he spotted Mark walking along I-85 North in Durham on May 19. Mark had not attended church since May 11, and had last been seen in Greensboro May 15 or 16, according to Assistant Chief Harold Scott of the Greensboro police.

Scott said another homeless couple had begun sitting on the bench, which could have caused Mark to leave.

For Gail Haworth, a veteran outreach worker and director of the Servant Center, the idea of Mark walking north — perhaps to Baltimore, where he once had family — was unsettling.

"He's very vulnerable to anyone going past, especially on I-85," she said. "He would have no food. Where would he sleep? It's just a scary thought."

Though Assistant Chief Scott said neighbors at Friendly Center had gradually started inquiring about Mark, Clara Ellis and her husband immediately suspected he was gone when he didn't show up for church May 18. Assigned to be greeters that day, the couple left as soon as the service started, and went to the bench.

"It was just such a lonely feeling," she said. "There was nothing there."

Contact Lorraine Ahearn at 373-7334 or lorraine.ahearn@news-record.com