diff --git a/core/src/main/java/org/apache/spark/classloader/GreedyUrlClassLoader.java b/core/src/main/java/org/apache/spark/classloader/GreedyUrlClassLoader.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000..3195a7d695565
--- /dev/null
+++ b/core/src/main/java/org/apache/spark/classloader/GreedyUrlClassLoader.java
@@ -0,0 +1,78 @@
+/*
+ * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more
+ * contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file distributed with
+ * this work for additional information regarding copyright ownership.
+ * The ASF licenses this file to You under the Apache License, Version 2.0
+ * (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with
+ * the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+
+package org.apache.spark.classloader;
+
+import java.net.URL;
+import java.net.URLClassLoader;
+import java.net.URLStreamHandlerFactory;
+
+/**
+ * <p>
+ * Instead of the usual delegate-first strategy employed by all the built-in classloaders, this one
+ * calls findClass first (after checking the cache), then delegates.  The net effect is to allow
+ * the classes that this classloader knows how to find and load itself (the URLs that are
+ * registered with it) to shadow class defs of the same name from parent classloaders.
+ * </p>
+ * <p>
+ * This shouldn't cause JVM class loader violations, because the world is still internally
+ * consistent from the perspective of classes loaded by this CL.
+ * </p>
+ */
+public class GreedyUrlClassLoader extends URLClassLoader {
+  /*
+  * It would be great to make this a Scala Trait, but I don't know of a way to write a static
+  * initializer into a trait.  It's a class loader; timing matters.
+  */
+  static {
+    //This spooky Java magic declares that we're smart enough to avoid class loading deadlocks.
+    //Requires 1.7
+    registerAsParallelCapable();
+  }
+
+  public GreedyUrlClassLoader(URL[] urls, ClassLoader parent) {
+    super(urls, parent);
+  }
+
+  public GreedyUrlClassLoader(URL[] urls, ClassLoader parent,
+      URLStreamHandlerFactory factory) {
+    super(urls, parent, factory);
+  }
+
+  @Override
+  protected Class<?> loadClass(String name, boolean resolve) throws ClassNotFoundException {
+    synchronized (getClassLoadingLock(name)) {
+      // First, check if the class has already been loaded
+      Class c = findLoadedClass(name);
+      if (c == null) {
+        try {
+          c = findClass(name);
+        } catch (ClassNotFoundException ignored) {
+        }
+
+        if (c == null) {
+          // Couldn't load it ourselves; delegate to the parent
+          c = getParent().loadClass(name);
+        }
+      }
+      if (resolve) {
+        resolveClass(c);
+      }
+      return c;
+    }
+  }
+}
diff --git a/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/executor/ExecutorURLClassLoader.scala b/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/executor/ExecutorURLClassLoader.scala
index 218ed7b5d2d39..baa0807b6c97e 100644
--- a/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/executor/ExecutorURLClassLoader.scala
+++ b/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/executor/ExecutorURLClassLoader.scala
@@ -19,56 +19,21 @@ package org.apache.spark.executor
 
 import java.net.{URLClassLoader, URL}
 
-import org.apache.spark.util.ParentClassLoader
+import org.apache.spark.classloader.GreedyUrlClassLoader
 
 /**
  * The addURL method in URLClassLoader is protected. We subclass it to make this accessible.
  * We also make changes so user classes can come before the default classes.
  */
-
 private[spark] trait MutableURLClassLoader extends ClassLoader {
-  def addURL(url: URL)
+  def addURL(url: URL) //XXX: this is sketchy and dangerous.  ClassLoader instances aren't designed to be mutable.
   def getURLs: Array[URL]
 }
 
 private[spark] class ChildExecutorURLClassLoader(urls: Array[URL], parent: ClassLoader)
-  extends MutableURLClassLoader {
-
-  private object userClassLoader extends URLClassLoader(urls, null){
-    override def addURL(url: URL) {
-      super.addURL(url)
-    }
-    override def findClass(name: String): Class[_] = {
-      super.findClass(name)
-    }
-  }
-
-  private val parentClassLoader = new ParentClassLoader(parent)
-
-  override def findClass(name: String): Class[_] = {
-    try {
-      userClassLoader.findClass(name)
-    } catch {
-      case e: ClassNotFoundException => {
-        parentClassLoader.loadClass(name)
-      }
-    }
-  }
-
-  def addURL(url: URL) {
-    userClassLoader.addURL(url)
-  }
-
-  def getURLs() = {
-    userClassLoader.getURLs()
-  }
+  extends GreedyUrlClassLoader(urls, parent) with MutableURLClassLoader {
 }
 
 private[spark] class ExecutorURLClassLoader(urls: Array[URL], parent: ClassLoader)
   extends URLClassLoader(urls, parent) with MutableURLClassLoader {
-
-  override def addURL(url: URL) {
-    super.addURL(url)
-  }
 }
-
diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index b993391b15042..236d5fc06d94e 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -112,7 +112,7 @@
     <project.reporting.outputEncoding>UTF-8</project.reporting.outputEncoding>
     <akka.group>org.spark-project.akka</akka.group>
     <akka.version>2.3.4-spark</akka.version>
-    <java.version>1.6</java.version>
+    <java.version>1.7</java.version>
     <sbt.project.name>spark</sbt.project.name>
     <scala.macros.version>2.0.1</scala.macros.version>
     <mesos.version>0.21.0</mesos.version>