Robert W. Olson  Robert W. Olson (October 25, 1920  – April 16, 2013 in Hendersonville, North Carolina ) was an American Seventh-day Adventist leader who was director of the Ellen G. White Estate from 1978 to 1990. Olson was the first staff member who was not a direct descendant of Ellen G. White to run her estate and the first staff member to hold a Ph.D. He had a wide variety of pastoral and administrative posts before joining the White Estate in the early 1970s. His leadership was characterized by a new openness to her writings (including the release of the controversial "Z file") and the release and publication of Ellen White's published writings on CD-ROM.