NEW YORK (AP) — It’s getting lonelier at the top for black CEOs.

Only four blacks will be left running Fortune 500 companies after Stan O’Neal’s abrupt retirement from the top spot at Merrill Lynch & Co. last week and Time Warner Inc. Dick Parsons’ announcement Monday that he will retire at the end of the year.

That leaves Aylwin Lewis at Sears Holding Corp., Kenneth Chenault at American Express Co., Ronald Williams at Aetna Inc. and Clarence Otis at Darden Restaurants Inc. as the only black chief executives among this list of the nation’s largest companies.

To some, the departures of O’Neal and Parsons underscore that all CEOs, whatever their race, have a short shelf life.

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