Prisoner of Amnesia Awaits His Release : Identity: A man found in a bus cargo bay knows only his name and shreds of a past. Nationwide inquiries have yielded no clues.

Meet Marvin Barry, a homeless amnesiac. He remembers working as a Wall Street banker, hearing his mother speak French, living in southern Florida, going skiing and having a dog named Woofy.

Now you know just about everything he says he knows of himself.

In nine months of searching, frustrated police and health officials have been unable to attach to this human enigma a hometown, family, job or past. He lives in limbo in a city hospital, a lost soul whose inner turmoil remains largely private.

“He’s very pleasant,” said Kathy Henry, a social worker helping Barry rebuild his life. “He’s quiet, easy to get along with. He’s a real gentleman.”

Barry was found Dec. 7, 1990, in the three-foot-high luggage compartment of a bus behind a Springfield terminal. He was suffering from frostbite and exposure.

Barry was carrying nothing that gave a clear indication of his identity. Police suspected that he had lived on the street for some time, but he was unknown at hospitals and shelters.

The search was expanded. Barry--who feels certain of his name--remembers living either in Boca Raton, Fla., or Miami. Detective Robert Flechaus of the Boca Raton police said his department put out bulletins to news media across southern Florida and got dozens of queries, but nothing useful.

Authorities contacted the FBI and even Interpol, the international police information agency. Henry, the social worker, called missing persons groups nationwide. Fingerprints, computer files and phone books were scoured.

Nothing.

Local health officials would not comment on Barry’s condition or what caused his amnesia.

Dr. Barry Ludwig, director of the brain injury unit at Daniel Freeman Memorial Hospital in Los Angeles, said that amnesiacs sometimes develop false memories.

He added that in the most common type of amnesia, caused by a head injury, the patient almost always recovers memory in less time than Barry has spent in the hospital. He said that such long-term amnesia, as described to him by a reporter, was not impossible but extraordinarily unusual.

Asked if Barry might be faking to gain shelter or for some other reason, Henry said: “No one has said he is faking amnesia.”

Barry has refused to be interviewed. He doesn’t feel up to it, Henry said.

He has brown hair and blue eyes, stands 6 foot 4 and weighs about 180 pounds. He has raised a beard since he surfaced in Springfield. He believes his birth date is Dec. 4, 1963.

He says he recalls that his mother was French, and her parents lived in Montreal.

“This is all, to his recollection,” Henry said. “Sometimes he tells me that he hates to name places or things because he’s not sure. He hates to create a stir for nothing.”

He believes his parents’ names are Kevin and Cheryl, that his father was in the shopping mall construction business and a grandfather, Clayton Barry, worked in the oil business in Houston, according to Henry.

Barry recalls working on Wall Street as an investment banker and believes he once held a broker’s license.

A stockbroker called in to interview Barry found that he does, indeed, have specialized financial knowledge, Henry said.

Barry remembers water and snow skiing, trips to high school in a red Volkswagen and a dog named Woofy. He recalls no siblings.

“He has a lot of nice memories of things when he was little. He recalls going to college, but he doesn’t remember where,” Henry said.