diff --git a/projects/samskivert/src/java/com/samskivert/util/LoopingThread.java b/projects/samskivert/src/java/com/samskivert/util/LoopingThread.java
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..58b7cfc5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/projects/samskivert/src/java/com/samskivert/util/LoopingThread.java
@@ -0,0 +1,97 @@
+//
+// $Id: LoopingThread.java,v 1.1 2001/05/29 03:29:44 mdb Exp $
+
+package com.samskivert.util;
+
+/**
+ * The looping thread provides the basic functionality for a thread that
+ * does its processing in a simple loop. This is characteristic of most
+ * event processing threads that pull an event off of a queue and process
+ * it each time through the loop.
+ */
+public class LoopingThread extends Thread
+{
+    /**
+     * Requests that this thread shut itself down. The running flag will
+     * be cleared and if this function is being called by an external
+     * thread, the derived-class-specific kick function will be called to
+     * awake the thread from any slumber it might be in.
+     */
+    public synchronized void shutdown ()
+    {
+        _running = false;
+
+        // only kick the thread if it's not requesting it's own shutdown
+        if (this != Thread.currentThread()) {
+            kick();
+        }
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Processes the loop. Derived classes should override
+     * <code>iterate()</code> to perform whatever action needs to be
+     * performed inside the loop.
+     */
+    public void run ()
+    {
+        willStart();
+        while (isRunning()) {
+            iterate();
+        }
+        didShutdown();
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Called to wake the thread up from any blocking wait that it might
+     * be in. This function should result in the thread exiting the
+     * iterate() function as soon as possible so that the running flag can
+     * be checked and the thread can cleanly exit.
+     */
+    protected void kick ()
+    {
+        // nothing doing by default
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Called before the thread enters the processing loop. Any
+     * initialization that needs to be performed prior to the
+     * <code>iterate()</code> loop can be done here.
+     */
+    protected void willStart ()
+    {
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * This is the main body of the loop. It will be called over and over
+     * again until the thread is requested to exit via a call to
+     * <code>shutdown()</code>. At minimum, a derived class must override
+     * this function and do something useful.
+     */
+    protected void iterate ()
+    {
+        throw new RuntimeException("Derived class must implement iterate().");
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Called after the thread has been requested to exit. Any cleanup
+     * that should take place after the <code>iterate()</code> loop has
+     * exited can be done here.
+     */
+    protected void didShutdown ()
+    {
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Indicates whether or not the thread should still be running. If a
+     * thread is calling this within <code>iterate()</code>, it should
+     * exit quickly and cleanly if the function returns false. It is
+     * automatically called as part of the iterate() loop, so normally a
+     * derived-class won't have to call it.
+     */
+    protected synchronized boolean isRunning ()
+    {
+        return _running;
+    }
+
+    protected boolean _running = true;
+}