Hargrove was an academic who had developed the archaeological theory known as "normative culture model" for culture history. He likely did most of his work in the academic setting, and not in the field. In 1957, after crashing into the Marshall College library on the motorcycle of Mutt Williams, Professor Henry Jones, Jr. was asked by one of his sophomore students about Hargrove's models. Jones replied to skip Hargrove and instead read Vere Gordon Childe's works on diffusionism, since Childe had done most of his work in the field.