Wilford Robert Gardner was born in 1925 in Logan, Utah to Robert and Nellie Barker Gardner. When Gardner graduated from high school in 1943, he enlisted in the US Army in response to the events that led to the US's involvement in World War II. Once enlisted, he took a military placement test, and was sent to the ROTC program at Stanford University, California for a short time. Thereafter, Gardner was assigned to the 1281st Combat Engineer Battalion and received army training at Fort Benning, Camp Livingston, Camp McCain, and Camp Polk before sailing for England. After a short time in England (December 1944-March 1945), Gardner entered Germany where he remained until July 1945, whereafter he was shipped to the Pacific Front. Gardner remained in the Pacific for eight months (August 1945 to March 1946), stationed in the Philippines, until his honorary discharge in March of 1946.

After the war, Gardner returned to Utah and studied physics and mathematics at Utah State Agricultural College (now Utah State University) and graduated with a BS in 1949. Gardner married Marjorie Louise Cole in June 1949, and he later had three children. He continued his studies at Iowa State University and received a MS in soil physics in 1951 and a Phd in physics and soil physics mathematics in 1953. Gardner found work as a physicist at the U.S. Salinity Labs in Riverside, California from 1953-1966. He was granted the National Science Foundation Senior Fellowship at Cambridge University, England and University of Wageningen, Netherlands 1959-1960. Later, Wilford found employment as a professor at the University of Wisconsin, Madison from 1966-1980. While at the U of W, he was a Fulbright Fellow (1971-1972), and published Soil Physics in 1972. From 1980-1994, Gardner taught at the University of Arizona, Tucson as a professor of physics and head of the department of Soil and Water Science. Between 1987 and 1994, he served as dean of the College of Natural Resources at the University of California, Berkeley. Gardner gained the status of dean emeritus in 1994. In 1995, he became an adjunct professor at Utah State in the Department of Plants, Soils, and Biometeorology. Throughout his career, Gardner published over 140 books, chapters, and scholarly articles.

Wilford R. Gardner has participated in many scientific societies and committees on the local, national and international level. Some of these include the following organizations: American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Society of Agronomy, International Soil Science Society, Soil Science Society of America, Water Science and Technology Board of the NRC and the National Academy of Sciences. He was the president of physics committee (1968-1974) for the International Soil Science Society, head of the delegation to International Union of Soil Science, chairman of the United States National Committee for Soil Science, and he served as president of the Soil Science Society of America. Gardner currently resides in Utah.