Joseph Francis Doerr, adjunct professor at St. Edward’s University, has spent a lot of time in classrooms.

With a B.A. in English from the University of Texas at Austin, an M.F.A. in Creative Writing and Poetry, an M.A. in English Literature, and a Ph.D. in Modern American and British Poetry from the University of Notre Dame, he started college without any idea of what he wanted to do.

Doerr got enough credit from his Jesuit high school to start college as a sophomore and used the free year he felt like he had earned to explore. He only took classes that intrigued him, worked as a runner for a commercial art company and “wondered what [he] ought to be doing with [his] life.”

At 21, Doerr dropped out of school and joined his brother’s band, The LeRoi Brothers, one of the bands that helped establish Austin as the live music capital of the world.

According to the Austin Chronicle’s Austin Music Database, Doerr “joined the band in the mid-1980s and kicked new life into it…Joe Doerr… kept them one of the hottest acts through the decade.”

For the next 10 years, Doerr toured with three bands: The LeRoi Brothers, Ballad Shambles and Hand of Glory.

When Doerr turned 31, he went back to school. He attended UT Austin for 18 months and got a full fellowship to Notre Dame based on his GRE scores.

Doerr has taught at Austin Community College and Notre Dame. Before coming to work at St. Edward’s, he also worked as a construction worker and a professional painter. He worked on the medical arts complex that lines the stretch of William Cannon Drive between West Gate and Manchaca.

“Those buildings look as fine as they do because yours truly sanded, sealed, painted and stained them into order,” he said with a smile.

Doerr re-joined The LeRoi Brothers in 2005, and played festivals in Scandinavia and France. The band often plays at the Continental Club on South Congress Avenue.

Doerr’s other band, Churchwood, which formed in 2008, “is the most creative and interesting band [he’s] ever been in.” Doerr described the band as a mixture of blues, punk, country and psychedelic.

When not involved musically, Doerr gardens and writes. His book of poetry, “Order of the Ordinary,” was published in 2003.

Doerr is currently editing a collection of essays on the poetry of John Matthias as part of Salt Publishing’s “Companion” series. Matthias and Doerr became good friends when Doerr attended Notre Dame, where Matthias was a professor.

“[Matthias is] the poet I consider to be my greatest writing mentor,” Doerr said.

Doerr has taught at St. Edward’s for nearly five years. He said the university is “a place that values real education and critical thinking.” He said he wanted to teach at St. Edward’s because it had a familiar and similar feel to Notre Dame.

“Furthermore, as a Holy Cross institution, the Humanities are still alive and well here,” Doerr said.

Doerr teaches Rhetoric and Composition I and II, both honors and regular levels. He has also taught Intermediate Poetry Writing. Beyond the mechanics of English, he hopes that his students realize that not everything is as it seems.

“One should always question so-called authority; that if something appears to be too good to be true, it probably is too good to be true; and finally, that the most important faculty that any human being possesses is the imagination,” Doerr said.