Carol Hardgrove was born in St. Louis, Missouri, December 28, 1921. She attended John Muir High School in Pasadena, California. She entered Whittier College in 1941, and moved to Portland, Oregon in 1943. Ms. Hardgrove received her B.A. in Early Childhood Education (1962) and her M.A. in Counseling and Guidance (1964) from the California State University at San Francisco. She worked in a number of different nursery and child care centers, and was Educational Consultant to Project Head Start from 1966 to 1970.

In 1972 Ms. Hardgrove joined the Department of Family Health Care Nursing, UCSF, as Assistant Clinical Professor, becoming Associate Clinical Professor in 1975. She held the same title in the Department of Nursing Service and the Department of Pediatrics, 1975-82.

Ms. Hardgrove was a member of a number of national organizations,including the National Association for the Education of Young Children, the Association of Care of Children in Hospitals, and its Northern California Affiliate, the Society for Research in Child Development and the American Orthopsychiatric Association. She is also a Fellow of the International Congress of Pediatrics. Ms. Hardgrove was a member of a number of national organizations, including the National Association for the Education of Young Children, the Association of Care of Children in Hospitals, and its Northern California Affiliate, the Society for Research in Child Development and the American Orthopsychiatric Association. She is also a Fellow of the International Congress of Pediatrics.

At UCSF she has served on a variety of campus-wide, school of Nursing and Departmental committees. She was Project Director of the Intergenerational Child Caregiving Project, a program to prepare older adults to work with infants and young children, and coordinator between the School of Nursing and the UCSF Child Care/Study Center. The courses Ms. Hardgrove taught included Therapeutic Uses of Play, Practicum in Family Health Care Nursing and Creative Uses of Play with Young Children. She also taught a number of courses in continuing education for the School of Nursing.

Ms. Hardgrove is the author of many articles dealing with children and parents and the hospital experience, and a book titled Parents and Children in the Hospital: The Family's Role in Pediatrics. (1972). She has also participated in or prepared films and audio tapes on related subjects.