Ronald G. Bliss, a highly-regarded Intellectual Property lawyer in Houston over the past two decades and a true legend in Houston legal circles, died Tuesday in Houston after a six year battle with cancer. Ron was 61 at the time of his death.
Ron headed Fulbright & Jaworski‘s IP section during a time of explosive growth in that area from the mid-1980’s until he became ill with cancer in the late 1990’s. Ron specialized in patent, trademark, copyright, and trade secret lawsuits, but he also was an expert in litigation matters over franchises and franchise assets. Most recently, Ron had become a first rate mediator of intellectual property disputes.
Although well known for his legal talent, Ron was legendary in Houston legal and business circles for being a decorated Vietnam War fighter pilot who spent over six years in the “Heartbreak Hotel,” a particularly nasty part of the “Hanoi Hilton” POW camp in North Vietnam. Ron was tortured many times during that experience, which gave him a particularly interesting perspective on difficult legal matters. Listening to his stories about the torture sessions was a riveting experience in and of itself, which is one of the reasons that Ron was a big part of the 2000 documentary Return with Honor.
Ron was in captivity for 2,374 days — as he would specify in talking about the experience — and he was shackled in leg chains for almost the entire time. According to Ron, the worst torture method was one called the “Vietnamese Rope Trick,” in which the North Vietnamese guards would place him face down with his wrists behind him on his back. The guards would then tie Ron’s arms with rope, run a bamboo pole through the ropes, and then apply increasing amounts of pressure on the pole. That force, in turn, would place tremendous pressure on his wrists, arms, elbows and shoulders. As Ron noted to me and a group of lawyers on one occasion, the physical abuse “did not help my golf game, but it is a good excuse for getting more strokes on the first tee.”
Ron got on with life upon his return to the United States in 1973 and never dwelled on the horrifying experience, although he would admit in conversation that he would have enjoyed a few rounds with the North Vietnamese guards who tortured him. As one would expect, Ron was a highly decorated veteran. Among his medals were two Silver Stars, a Distinguished Flying Cross, two Purple Hearts and the POW Medal. He was also inducted into the Texas Aviation Hall of Fame in 2000.
A memorial service for this remarkable Houstonian will be held at 1 p.m. Friday at St. Luke’s United Methodist Church, 3471 Westheimer.

Thad Grundy, who was one of the statesmen in Houston’s business bankruptcy bar for many years, died on Wednesday in Houston at the age of 84.
Thad was a member of the same extraordinary generation of men as my late father. He was born and raised in Galveston, and then — like many men in that generation — graduated from college and law schoool (The University of Texas) just in time to enter the Navy in World War II. From 1942 until 1945, Thad served in the United States Naval Reserve as a commanding officer of PT boats in the Mediterranean Sea and in the Philippines. He went on to serve with distinction and was awarded several medals, including the Silver Star. Despite his disintinguished service for his country, Thad was a humble man and never mentioned his military record to me in the 25 years that we knew each other.
When Thad returned to Houston after the war and he joined Fulbright & Jaworski (then known as Fulbright, Crooker, Freeman and Bates). Then, in 1957, he became a founding partner in the medium-sized downtown Houston firm Hutcheson and Grundy, where he practiced for over 30 years until that firm dissolved in early 1998. For several years after that, Thad continued practicing in an of counsel role at Locke Liddell & Sapp in Houston.
Thad was a fine lawyer in many areas, but his real forte’ was business bankruptcy. Along with Mickey Sheinfeld, the late Bankruptcy Judge Arthur Moeller, and several others, Thad was one of the leaders of the early Houston business bankruptcy bar, which over the years has grown into a formidable force on the national scene. Thad was always a gentleman and a mentor to any young attorney who sought his insight into the myriad of complex issues that arise in business reorganization litigation.
I met Thad in the first big corporate reorganization case that I worked on after law school. He represented the largest group of bondholders and I represented the largest unsecured creditor in the case. The case did not go well for Thad and his clients, but my lasting memory of Thad from that case is the classy and professional way that he handled the adversity of that case. In many ways, that has been a more valuable lesson for me than any creative legal strategy that I have learned over the years.
A memorial service for Thad will be held at St. Martin’s Episcopal Church (sometimes referred to by Houstonians as former “President Bush’s Church”), 717 Sage Road, at 11 a.m. today. If you are not able to make it, say a prayer for this good and honorable man who will be sorely missed by the Houston legal community.